-  / 


/hpf^V'TT-ry^) 


^J 


TRACTS 


CONCERNING 


CHRISTIANITY. 


TRACTS 


CONCERNING 


CHRISTIANITY. 


BY 


ANDREWS    NORTON 


CAMBRIDGE  : 

JOHN     BARTLETT. 

1852. 


^ 


Eijtered  acconling  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1852,  by 

Andrews    Norton, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts 


^ 


Of/Piyfi-p-*^  . 


CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALF     AND     COMPAKT, 

PRINTERS   TO  THE   UMVBRSITY. 


PREFACE 


The  Tracts  collected  in  this  volume  all  have  a 
common  purpose,  to  vindicate  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity from  errors  which  have  been  connected  with 
them,  or  by  which  they  have  been  assailed.  But, 
in  the  interval  between  the  composition  of  the  ear- 
liest of  these  articles  and  the  latest  of  them,  errors 
of  very  different  kinds,  errors  contradictory  to  and 
destructive  of  each  other,  have  prevailed,  some  at 
one  time,  and  some  at  another,  in  that  portion  of 
the  Christian  world  with  which  we  have  most  con- 
cern. We  may  hope  that  they  are  beginning  to 
pass  away ;  but  their  pernicious  consequences,  and 
the  causes  by  which  they  have  been  produced,  will 
long  remain;  and  the  errors  themselves  will  con- 
tinue to  appear,  if  not  under  their  old,  under  new 
aspects.  The  truth  has  not  yet  made  such  progress 
as  to  take  their  place.     If  there  be  any  value,  there- 


241015 


vi  PREFACE. 

fore,  in  these  Tracts,  it  must  be  partly  in  their  pres- 
ent, and  partly  in  their  historical  relations.  It  is  a 
preservative  against  false  opinions  to  know  their 
history, — to  know  that  they  have  been  maintained, 
and  why  they  have  been  rejected. 


TRACTS 


CONTAINED    IN    THIS    VOLUME 


PAGK 


I.  A  Defence  of  Liberal  Christianity,  .       .1 

II.  A  Discourse  on  the  Extent  and  Relations 

OF  Theology, 59 

III.  Thoughts  on  True  and  False  Religion,  99 

IV.  Views  of  Calvinism, 159 

V.  A  Discourse  on  the  Latest  Form  of  Infi- 
delity,   229 

VI.  Remarks  on  the  Modern  German  School  of 

Infidelity, 269 

VII.  On  the  Objection  to  Faith  in  Christianity, 
AS  resting  on  Historical  Facts  and  Criti- 
cal Learning, 369 


DEFENCE 


OF 


LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 


INTEODUCTORY    NOTE. 


The  article  which  follows  has  not  been  republished  since 
its  first  appearance,  nearly  forty  years  ago.  It  was  written 
in  a  state  of  things  very  different  from  what  now  exists 
around  us.  Since  that  time  the  progress  of  this  country  in 
general  literature,  in  the  physical  and  exact  sciences,  and 
in  religious  liberality,  has  been  very  great ;  not,  perhaps, 
falling  behind  its  advance  in  material  prosperity.  But,  dur- 
ing the  last  forty  years,  there  has  not  been  in  this  country, 
nor  in  England,  nor,  I  think,  in  any  European  country,  (for 
I  certainly  do  not  regard  Germany  as  an  exception,)  a  cor- 
respondent progress  in  correct  modes  of  thinking  and  rea- 
soning upon  the  highest  subjects  of  human  thought,  or  in 
establishing  and  clearly  exhibiting  those  facts  on  which  all 
rational  conclusions  concerning  religion  must  rest. 

If  the  propositions  concerning  religion  maintained  in  the 
following  article  are  true,  they  are  truths  of  equal  impor- 
tance at  all  times.  But  the  mode  of  presenting  them  may 
vary  according  to  the  errors  to  be  opposed.  The  errors 
which  I  had  in  view  in  writing  it  are  still  the  professed  errors 
of  a  very  large  portion  of  Christians,  —  professed  in  their 
creeds,  and  insisted  upon  by  many  as  their  individual  convic- 
tion.    They  have  been  called  the  distinguishing  doctrines  of 


4         DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

Christianity ;  and  whatever  disposition  there  may  be  to  shrink 
from  assenting  to  their  literal  statement,  yet,  in  some  dis- 
guised and  mitigated  form  at  least,  they  enter  into  most 
men's  conceptions  of  our  religion.  But  in  what,  I  fear,  may 
be  called  the  general  suspension  of  rational  thought  and 
feeling  concerning  religious  truth,  they  are  at  the  present 
moment  lying  comparatively  dormant;  and  their  ill  in- 
fluence is  most  felt  in  their  repelling  the  minds  of  men, 
by  the  view  of  Christianity  which  they  present,  from  any 
desire  to  know  what  Christianity  really  is. 

It  was  not  so  at  the  time  when  this  article  was  written. 
Of  the  state  of  things  then  existing  in  the  community  in 
which  I  lived,  I  some  time  since  gave  an  account  in  a  letter 
to  my  friend,  Mr.  George  Ticknor,  in  reply  to  a  request  for 
"  information  on  the  origin  and  progress  of  liberal  views 
of  Christianity  in  New  England,  and  on  Mr.  Buckminster's 
relations  to  them."  It  was  printed  in  the  "  Christian  Ex^ 
aminer  "  for  September,  1849,  and,  with  some  unimportant 
omissions,  is  here  subjoined. 

"  As  you  know,  there  has  been  from  an  early  period,  I 
cannot  say  how  early,  a  resistance  to  the  rigid  Calvinism  of 
our  forefathers,  and  to  their  false  conceptions  of  religion. 
The  authority  of  their  system  was  broken  in  upon  by  the 
publication  of  Roger  Williams's  '  Bloudy  Tenent,'  in  1644. 
I  cannot  from  memory  trace  the  history  of  this  resistance. 
Perhaps  —  I  place  no  confidence  in  my  recollections  — 
the  most  important  work  against  the  peculiar  doctrines  of 
Calvinism,  which  subsequently  appeared,  was  one  published 
just  a  century  later,  in  1744,  entitled,  '  Grace  Defended,'\ 
by  Experience  Mayhew,  the  missionary  to  the  Indians,  and 
the  father  of  Dr.  Jonathan  Mayhew.  But,  from  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  there  was  a  considerable  and  increasing 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  5 

body,  both  of  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  who  rejected  with 
more  or  less  explicitness  the  doctrines  of  Calvinism,  and 
modified  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  into  what  has  been  called 
'high  Arianism,'  that  is,  into  the  proper,  ancient,  Arian 
doctrine.  The  name  Arminian  soon  began  to  be  familiarly 
used  to  denote  such  heretics,  often  with  some  epithet  of  dis- 
respect. The  tendency  to  separation  between  the  two  par- 
ties had,  indeed,  commenced  before  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  and  was  increased  by  the  preaching  of  Whitefield 
in  this  country,  who  arrived  for  the  first  time  in  1740,  and 
whose  extravagances  and  denunciations  gave  offence,  and 
tended  to  weaken  the  credit  of  his  doctrines. 

"  This  controversy,  as  men  did  not  reason  in  those  days 
from  their  spiritual  intuitions,  implied  learning,  and  a  critical 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  after  the  fashion  of  those  times. 
These  studies  extended  even  to  the  laity,  some  of  whom 
were  interested  in  settling  their  faith  for  themselves.  One  of 
the  earliest  books  which  I  read  relating  to  the  exposhion  of 
the  Scriptures,  many  years  ago,  when  quite  a  young  man, 
was  a  copy  of  the  original  edition  of  Taylor  on  the  Romans, 
borrowed  from  the  family  of  an  old  gentleman  who  had 
formerly  recommended  and  lent  it  to  my  father. 

"  Besides  the  main  controversy  between  '  the  Orthodox ' 
and  '  liberal  Christians,'  there  were  other  controversies, 
which  kept  alive  a  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  attention  to  theo- 
logical learning  generally,  and  particularly  to  the  critical 
study  of  the  Scriptures;  such  as  those  respecting  Epis- 
copacy, and  the  doctrine  of  the  final  salvation  of  all  men, 
in  both  of  which  Dr.  Chauncy  particularly  distinguished 
himself. 

"  But,  if  my  recollection  serves  me  correctly,  there  was 
in  the  last  twenty  years  of  the  last  century  a  suspension  of 
controversy  between  our  two  great  religious  parties,  a  lull  in 
1*. 


6         DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

our  theological  world,  broken  only  by  the  writings  of  Hop- 
kins and  his  followers  and  opponents,  which  added  nothing 
to  the  theological  learning  of  our  country.  This  condition 
of  things  was  in  a  great  measure  produced  by  the  state  of 
public  affairs  in  our  own  country  and  in  Europe,  which  en- 
grossed men's  thoughts  and  feelings.  Religious  opinions 
were  less  clearly  defined ;  clergymen,  holding,  as  they  con- 
ceived, opposite  doctrines,  did  not  in  all  cases  feel  bound  to 
keep  aloof  from  each  other.  This  state  of  things  continued 
into  the  present  century ;  but  the  truce  was  soon  broken. 

"  One  of  the  first  symptoms  of  the  renewed  struggle  was 
the  appearance  of  the  '  Panoplist,'  *  I  think  in  1804.  In  that 
publication  I  do  not  recollect  any  thing  marked  by  its  learn- 
ing or  its  power  of  general  reasoning.  It  did  nothing  to 
promote  theological  science.  But  the  flame  which  it  was 
intended  to  kindle  blazed  forth  on  the  election  of  Dr.  Ware, 
who  was  a  liberal  Christian  in  the  best  sense  of  the  words, 
and  a  good  theological  scholar,  to  the  professorship  of  divinity 
in  Harvard  College.  This  was  in  1805.  But  the  controversy 
which  followed  was  not  managed  with  extraordinary  ability 
by  the  liberal  party.  Through  the  influence  of  many  causes, 
which  rendered  the  fact  natural  and  excusable,  members  of 
that  party  were  not  sufficiently  explicit  in  the  avowal  of  their 
opinions;  there  was  a  tendency  among  them  to  represent 
themselves  as  not  essentially  disagreeing  with  their  opponents ; 
and  in  general,  though  the  superiority  of  the  liberal  party  in 
learning  was  then  acknowledged,  they  wanted  the  learning 
necessary  to  give  them  assurance  in  their  opinions,  and  to 
enable  them  fully  and  satisfactorily  to  explain  and  defend 
them.  The  feelings  of  resistance  in  the  other  party  weres 
very  strong  and  active.  They  denounced  their  opponents 
-  _  ^ 

*  A  periodical  publication. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  t 


as  enemies  of  the  Gospel,  and  excluded  from  the  hope  of 
salvation.  This  strong  language,  which  may  sound  so 
strangely  in  our  times,  is  fully  supported  by  the  controversial 
writings  of  that  period.  I  may  refer  especially  to  the  dif- 
ferent Letters  of  Dr.  Worcester  to  Mr.  Channing,  Dr. 
Worcester  having  come  forward  at  a  later  date  (in  1815)  as 
a  champion  of  the  Orthodox  party.  The  prestige  of  Ortho- 
doxy continued  very  powerful ;  and  there  were  many  whose 
own  opinions  would  have  borne  no  severe  test,  who  yet 
shrunk  from  any  direct  opposition  to  it.  I  cannot  fix  the 
precise  date,  but  it  was  after  1805,  that  I  was  informed  by 
a  young  minister,  that,  on  his  professing  his  disbelief  of  the 
Trinity,  he  was  told  by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  clergy- 
men of  Boston,  and  a  most  liberal-minded  man,  that  he  had 
better  not  publicly  avow  it. 

"  It  was  in  this  state  of  things,  in  1805,  when  he  was  not 
yet  twenty-one  years  old,  that  Mr.  Buckminster  was  or- 
dained as  pastor  of  the  society  in  Brattle  Street.  In  less 
than  eight  years,  —  eight  years  interrupted  by  constant  ill- 
health,  and  by  constant  labors  and  avocations  connected  with 
his  ministry,  —  he  was  taken  from  us.  The  blossoms  and 
fruits  of  his  mind  —  ripe  fruits  —  appeared  together.  I 
have  nothing  to  add  to  the  opinions  I  expressed,  immediately 
after  his  death,  in  the  'General  Repository,'  concerning 
the  influence  of  his  genius,  his  learning,  his  whole  char- 
acter, in  promoting  and  giving  an  impulse  to  all  good  litera- 
ture among  us,  and  especially  to  the  liberal  and  enlightened 
study  of  theology.  These  opinions  were  afterwards  con- 
firmed by  the  corresponding  views  presented  in  the  excel- 
lent Memoir  of  him,  by  his  friend  and  mine,  Mr.  Thacher. 
This  Memoir,  and  the  notices  of  him  in  the  General  Reposi- 
tory, (there  were  two,)  are  prefixed  to, the  last  edition  of  his 
Sermons. 


8  DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

"  I  will  go  on  to  mention  a  few  facts  which  throw  light  on 
the  state  of  religious  opinion  and  feeling,  and  of  theological 
learning,  during  the  period  of  which  I  have  spoken.  In  1812, 
I  published,  as  editor,  the  first  volume  of  the  '  General  Re-. 
pository.'  I  suppose  I  need  have  no  hesitation  in  stating, 
what  was  then  generally  recognized,  that  in  this  work  the 
tone  of  opposition  to  the  prevailing  doctrines  of  Orthodoxy 
was  more  explicit,  decided,  and  fundamental  than  had  been 
common  among  us.  The  first  article  in  the  volume,  entitled 
'  A  Defence  of  Liberal  Christianity,'  was  written  by  myself. 
Mr.  Buckminster  expressed  to  me,  on  his  own  part,  no  dis- 
satisfaction with  its  sentiments,  but  told  me  of  a  remark  made 
on  it  by  our  common  friend,  Mr.  Vaughan  of  Hallowell,  the 
pupil  and  friend  of  Dr.  Priestley,  —  that  it  reminded  him  of 
what  the  English  Unitarians  had  been  called,  namely, '  the 
sect  of  the  Imprudents.'  For  one  who  should  read  it  now, 
with  only  a  knowledge  of  the  present  state  of  religious  opin- 
ion and  feeling  in  our  country,  it  might  be  difficult  to  discover 
why  the  writer  should  be  thought  to  belong  to  the  sect  of 
the  Imprudents.  But,  in  1809,  Mr.  Buckminster  had  said, 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Belsham,  (published  in  Williams's  Life  of 
Belsham,)  '  Do  you  wish  to  know  any  thing  of  American 
theology  .?  I  can  only  tell  you,  that,  except  in  the  small 
town  of  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  there  cannot  be  collected, 
from  a  space  of  one  hundred  miles,  six  clergymen  who 
have  any  conceptions  of  rational  theology,  and  who  would 
not  shrink  from  the  suspicion  of  Antitrinitarianism  in  any 
shape.' 

"  But  the  publication  of  the  General  Repository  soon  failed 
for  want  of  support.     It  was  too  bold  for  the  proper  pru^  v 
dence,  or  the  worldly  caution,  or  for  the  actual  convictions,  k 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  liberal  party.     Mr.  Channing,  in 
a  defence  of  those  who  were  then  among  us  beginning  to  be 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  9 

called  Unitarians,  in  his  '  Letter  to  Mr.  Thacher,'  pub- 
lished in  1815,  said  of  it,  'As  to  the  General  Repository,  I 
never  for  a  moment  imagined  that  its  editor  was  constituted 
or  acknowledged  as  the  organ  of  his  brethren ;  and,  while  its 
high  literary  merit  has  been  allowed,  I  have  heard  some  of 
its  sentiments  disapproved  by  a  majority  of  those  with  whom 
1  conversed.'  When,  in  1819,  I  was  elected  Professor  of 
Biblical  Criticism,  the  President  of  the  College,  Dr.  Kirk- 
land,  informed  me  that  Mr.  Channing,  who  was  then  a  mem- 
ber of  its  Corporation,  was  willing  to  assign  me  the  duties 
and  the  salary  of  the  office,  but  objected  to  giving  me  the 
title  of  Professor  on  account  of  the  injury  it  might  be  to  the 
College  to  make  so  conspicuous  its  connection  with  one  hold- 
ing such  opinions  as  mine. 

"  Its  decided  character,  however,  was  not  the  only  obstacle 
to  the  success  of  the  General  Repository.  It  was  overbur- 
dened with  learning,  or  with  what  passed  for  learning  among 
us,  out  of  proportion  to  the  amount  of  theological  knowledge, 
or  interest  in  such  knowledge,  which  existed  among  its  read- 
ers. I  gave  in  it  an  account  of  the  controversy  between 
Dr.  Priestley  and  Dr.  Horsley,  the  fame  of  which  had  not 
then  died  out ;  and  this  was  continued  through  several  num- 
bers. Dr.  Kirkland,  with  his  usual  happiness  in  giving 
advice  indirectly,  told  me  that  people  said  '  I  was  writing 
what  nobody  but  myself  understood.'  Still  an  effort  was 
made  by  its  friends  to  promote  its  circulation.  In  1813,  a 
recommendation  of  it  (unsolicited  by  me)  was  published  as 
a  circular,  bearing  the  signatures  of  five  of  the  most  respect- 
able laymen  of  Boston.  But  it  was  not  thought  advisable 
that  any  clergyman  should  sign  it. 

"  The  facts  which  I  have  stated,  few  as  they  are,  may 
throw  some  light  on  the  oppressive  bigotry  which  at  that  time 
prevailed  among  us.     I  am  tempted  to  add  another  proof. 


10       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

A  passage  comes  to  my  recollection  of  a  lecture  which  I  de- 
livered in  the  College  Chapel,  about  the  year  1816  (I  cannot 
fix  the  precise  date).  I  have  looked  it  up  in  the  manuscript, 
and  find  it  to  be  to  this  effect :  — 

"  *  Whatever  an  ill  man  believes,'  says  Jeremy  Taylor, 
'  if  he  therefore  believes  it  because  it  serves  his  own  ends, 
be  his  belief  true  or  false,  the  man  hath  an  heretical  mind  ; 
for,  to  serve  his  own  ends,  his  mind  is  prepared  to  believe  a 
lie.  But  a  good  man,  that  believes  what,  according  to  his 
light  and  the  use  of  his  moral  industry,  he  thinks  true, 
whether  he  hits  upon  the  right  or  no,  because  he  hath  a  mind 
desirous  of  truth,  and  prepared  to  believe  every  truth,  is 
therefore  acceptable  to  God ;  because  nothing  hindered  him 
from  it  but  what  he  could  not  help, — his  misery  and  his  weak- 
ness,—  which  being  imperfections  merely  natural,  which  God 
never  punishes,  he  stands  fair  for  a  blessing  of  his  morality, 
which  God  always  accepts.'  This  is  admirable.  —  But  it  is 
melancholy  to  think,  that  we  have  so  long  been  accustomed 
to  nothing  but  what  is  bigoted  and  narrow  and  irrational  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  that  we  feel  delight  in  the  expression 
of  any  generous  or  manly  sentiment,  though  it  be  nothing 
but  the  most  obvious  truth.  We  are  like  those  who  have 
been  so  long  confined  within  the  walls  of  a  prison,  that  they 
are  filled  with  emotion  at  being  restored  to  the  common  light 
and  air. 

"  When  we  consider  that  it  would  be  an  absurdity  too  gross 
to  be  imagined,  for  one  among  us  at  the  present  day  to  de- 
liver in  a  lecture  the  concluding  remarks  on  the  passage 
from  Taylor,  we  may  comprehend  what  a  vast  change  has 
taken  place  since  they  were  written. 

"  I  some  time  since  observed  a  passage  in  a  note  by 
Mr.  W.  H.  Channing  to  the  Preface  to  his  Memoir  of 
his  uncle,  in  which  he  says,  that,  in  a   sketch  which  he 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE.  11 

had  written  '  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Unitarian 
controversy,'  but  forbore  to  publish,  '  the  rightful  posi- 
tion was  assigned  to  the  General  Repository,  as  the  ad- 
vance-guard of  Unitarianism  proper."  What  he  meant  by 
the  words  '  Unitarianism  proper '  I  do  not  understand ; 
nor  do  I  conceive  him  to  have  had  any  distinct  meaning 
in  his  own  mind.  No  work,  in  opposition  to  what  its  writer 
regarded  as  prevailing  errors  concerning  religion,  could 
have  less  connection  than  the  Repository  with  any  thing  that 
may  be  called  '  Unitarianism  proper,'  unless  by  this  term  be 
meant  simply  Antitrinitarianism,  —  a  sense  which,  as  appears 
from  the  connection  in  which  it  stands,  could  not  reasonably 
be  intended.  The  common  use  of  the  words  *  Unitarians ' 
and  'Unitarianism,'  to  denote  a  sect  and  the  opinions  of 
that  sect,  was,  I  think,  introduced  among  those  who  had 
before  been  called  'liberal  Christians,'  by  Mr.  Channing, 
through  his  Letter  to  Mr.  Thacher,  published  in  1815.  The 
Orthodox  had  endeavored  to  fix  that  name  on  liberal  Chris- 
tians invidiously,  for  the  purpose  of  confounding  them  with 
the  English  Unitarians  of  that  time,  and  of  making  them 
responsible  for  all  the  speculations  of  members  of  that  body. 
Mr.  Channing,  though  recognizing  it  as  an  ambiguous  term, 
and  remonstrating  against  the  use  made  of  it  by  the  Orthodox, 
and  carefully  defining  that  by  Unitarianism  he  meant  only 
Antitrinitarianism,  yet  adopted  the  appellation  as  the  distinct- 
ive name  of  those  in  whose  defence  he  was  writing.  In  a 
note  to  this  Letter,  he  explains  that  he  regarded  the  name 
'  liberal  Christians '  as  too  assuming ;  '  because  the  word  lib- 
erality expresses  the  noblest  qualities  of  the  human  mind.' 
That  name,  however,  had  been  familiarly  applied  by  the 
Orthodox  to  their  opponents,  without  any  intention  either  of 
complimenting  them  or  of  sneering  at  them. 
"  The  name  '  Unitarian '  gradually  became  prevalent  among 


12       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

us,  and  those  by  whom  it  was  assumed  combined  into  a  sect. 
They  thus  quitted  the  high  ground  on  which  they  had  stood, 
or  might  have  stood,  in  company  with  the  good  and  wise, 
the  philosophers  of  different  ages  and  different  denominations, 
—  with  such  men  as  Erasmus,  and  Grotius,  and  Locke,  and 
Le  Clerc,  who,  according  to  their  light,  opposed  the  relig- 
ious errors  prevailing  round  them,  and  were  *the  liberal 
Christians '  of  their  day.  They  exchanged  this  for  a  connec- 
tion with  the  English  Unitarians  as  they  then  existed ;  and, 
notwithstanding  the  credit  conferred  on  that  sect  by  the  emi- 
nent talents  and  great  virtues  of  Priestley,  and  the  sturdy 
honesty  of  Belsham,  this  connection  was  an  unfortunate  one. 
They  were  obliged  continually  to  explain,  that  they  were  not 
to  be  held  responsible,  either  for  the  metaphysical  doctrines, 
or  for  many  of  the  religious  sentiments,  of  its  more  conspic- 
uous members,  —  that  they  agreed  with  them  only  in  being 
Antitrinitarians.  There  are  times  in  which  religious  truth  is 
exposed  to  particular  persecution  and  obloquy,  when  it  may 
be  well  for  its  defenders  to  combine  into  a  sect  for  mutual 
encouragement  and  support.  But  the  pressure  from  without 
must  be  great  to  render  it  advisable.  The  combination 
implied  in  the  formation  of  a  religious  sect  at  the  present 
day,  with  a  distinctive  name,  is  attended  with  great  evils. 
It  is,  however,  favored  by  many,  through  their  love  of  sym- 
pathy, and  from  the  excitement  of  party  feeling,  or  because, 
as  members  or  zealots  of  a  sect,  they  may  attain  to  a 
consideration  which,  standing  alone,  they  could  not  possess. 
But  religious  truth,  the  great  means  of  improving  the  con- 
dition of  mankind,  is  not  to  be  ascertained  and  made  effica- 
cious through  the  combination  of  men  into  religious  parties, 
though  its  influence  may  be  greatly  impeded  by  such  com- 
binations. 

"  The   name  of  '  Unitarians,'  to  whatever  honor  it  had 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  13 

been  raised  by  the  persecuted  '  Polish  Brotherhood,'  the 
Fratres  Poloni,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  was  an  unfortu- 
nate name  to  be  assumed  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
by  a  sect  among  us.  It  was  explained  as  denoting  merely  a 
disbelief  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  as  including  all 
(that  is,  as  was  then  meant,  all  Christians)  who  rejected  that 
doctrine,  whatever  might  be  their  differences  of  opinion 
respecting  the  language  of  Scripture  which  has  been  sup- 
posed to  relate  to  it.  But,  were  Christian  sects  at  the  present 
day  to  be  founded  at  all,  it  must  be  bad  to  found  them  on 
disbelief,  and  especially,  as  in  the  present  case,  on  the  dis- 
belief of  a  particular  doctrine,  —  that  of  the  Trinity.  It  is 
giving  this  doctrine  a  solitary  place  of  preeminence  among  a 
multitude  of  other  errors  all  Hnked  together,  and  some  of 
them  equally,  or  even  far  more,  disastrous.  The  ill  conse- 
quences of  a  name  of  such  indefinite  comprehensiveness,  and 
so  easily  abused,  when  this  name  is  assumed  by  a  religious 
party,  were  not  at  once  perceived.  But  they  have  become 
conspicuous.  When  a  Unitarian  was  first  spoken  of  among 
us,  a  unitarian  Christian,  as  I  have  said,  was  meant.  But 
the  adjunct '  unitarian  '  has  succeeded,  to  a  great  extent,  in 
dispossessing  the  substantive  '  Christian '  of  its  power ;  and 
the  Christian  Unitarians  among  us  have  in  consequence 
found  themselves  brought  into  strange  fellowship  with  un- 
believers and  pantheists. 

"  But  I  am  unwilling  to  conclude  with  the  few  sentences 
last  written.  What  is  now  wanting  to  the  progress  and  in- 
fluence of  rational  religion  among  us  is  a  revival  of  the  feel- 
ing of  the  importance  of  religious  truth,  —  a  practical  con- 
viction of  the  fact,  which,  however  obvious  and  indisputable, 
does  not  seem  to  be  generally  recognized,  that  it  is  only  by 
religious  truth  that  religious  errors,  with  all  their  attendant 
evils,  can  be  done  away  ;  and  of  a  fact  equally  obvious,  that, 
2 


14  INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

in  the  present  conflict  of  opinions,  minds  disciplined  in  habits 
of  correct  reasoning  and  informed  by  extensive  learning, 
minds  acquainted  with  the  diflTerent  branches  of  theological 
science,  which  embraces  or  touches  upon  all  the  higher  and 
more  important  subjects  of  thought,  are  required  for  the  at- 
tainment and  communication  of  religious  truth.  In  one 
word,  it  is  learned  and  able  theologians  that  are  wanted,  — 
such  men  as  Mr.  Buckminster." 


A    DEFENCE 


OP 


LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY 


Among  Protestant  Christians  there  are  two 
principal  parties,  which  have  been  denominated 
with  no  great  propriety  of  language  the  ortho- 
dox and  the  liberal.  Between  such,  however, 
as  may  be  decisively  ranked  in  either  party,  the 
whole  interval  is  filled  by  men,  whose  different 
opinions,  some  more  resembling  those  of  the 
one  side,  and  some  those  of  the  other,  may  sup- 
ply every  shade  in  the  gradation.  But,  though 
the  limits  of  neither  division  can  be  accurately 
defined,  and  though  in  each  are  comprehended 
men  who  differ  much  in  belief  and  sentiments 
from  one  another,  yet  there  are  some  general 
characteristics  of  each  division,  which  are  sufii- 
ciently  distinguishable.  Those  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  liberal  Christians,  who  believe  that 
Christianity,  in  respect  to  its  main  design,  is  a 


16       DEFENCE  OF   LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

revelation  from  God ;  a  revelation  of  religious 
truths  beyond  all  comparison  more  important 
and  interesting,  than  what  unenlightened  rea- 
son can  with  any  approach  to  certainty  dis- 
cover; a  revelation  of  the  being  and  moral 
government  of  God,  of  the  immortality  of 
man,  of  the  purpose  of  the  present  life,  of 
the  character  here  to  be  formed,  and  of  our 
condition  in  a  future  state  as  depending  on 
our  present  conduct.  There  are  many,  indeed, 
to  be  considered  as  liberal  Christians,  who,  be- 
lieving that  Christianity  is  in  its  main  design  a 
revelation,  do  yet  believe  that  there  are  other 
important  purposes  of  this  dispensation.  The 
orthodox,  on  the  contrary,  do  not  consider 
Christianity  in  respect  to  its  principal  purpose 
as  a  revelation  of  any  kind,  but  as  a  scheme 
by  which  mankind,  created  with  natures  so 
corrupt  as  never  to  perform  the  will  of  God, 
and  therefore  justly  exposed  to  his  wrath  and 
the  severest  punishments,  and  utterly  impotent 
to  do  any  thing  to  deliver  themselves  from  this 
condition,  are  now,  through  the  sufferings  and 
death  of  Christ,  put  into  such  a  state,  that  the 
mercy  of  God  is  offered  to  all  and  extended  to 
some  individuals.  They  believe  that  these 
views  of  human  nature  and  of  Christianity 
were  taught  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  together 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       17 

with  other  doctrines,  some  of  them  mysterious 
and  incomprehensible,  which  are  not  to  be 
examined  by  the  principles  of  natural  reason, 
but  in  the  reception  of  which  our  reason  is  to 
humble  itself  before  our  faith;  and  they  for 
the  most  part  consider  the  reception  of  these 
doctrines  as  essential, — as  being  the  only  foun- 
dation of  the  Christian  character.  The  modes 
of  interpretation  which  these  two  classes  of 
Christians  apply  to  the  Scriptures  likewise 
form  characteristic  differences.  The  orthodox, 
believing  the  writings  of  the  Evangelists  and 
Apostles  to  have  been  composed  under  God's 
immediate  and  miraculous  superintendence,  for 
the  immediate  purpose  of  being  used  and  easi- 
ly understood  by  all  Christians  in  all  coun- 
tries and  in  all  ages,  of  course  apply  to  writ- 
ings of  so  peculiar  a  character  a  mode  of  inter- 
pretation very  different  from  what  is  applied  to 
any  other.  They  believe  that  no  allowance  is 
to  be  made  for  the  inadvertence  of  the  writer, 
and  none  for  the  exaggeration  produced  by 
strong  feelings.  They  pay  but  little  attention 
to  that  use  of  language,  common  in  all  human 
compositions,  according  to  which  the  insulated 
meaning  of  words  is  not  to  be  considered,  and 
their  true  meaning  is  that  which  is  defined  by 
their  connection,  by  some  other  known  circum- 


18       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

stance,  or  by  the  reason  of  the  thing.  They 
do  not  expect  to  find  the  meaning  much  dis- 
guised by  peculiarities  of  expression  charac- 
teristic of  the  writer,  or  of  the  age  or  country 
to  which  he  belonged ;  they  pay  but  little  re- 
gard to  the  circumstances  in  which  he  wrote, 
or  to  those  of  the  persons  whom  he  addressed ; 
and  they  are  not  ready  to  believe  that  writings, 
expressly  intended  for  the  general  use  of  all 
Christians,  should  be  much  occupied  by  contro- 
versies which  prevailed  only  in  the  first  ages 
of  the  Church.  Liberal  Christians,  on  the 
contrary,  believe  that  attention  should  be  paid 
to  all  these  particulars ;  and,  while  they  regard 
the  Christian  Scriptures  as  the  writings  of  men 
instructed  by  Christ  himself,  or  by  immediate 
revelation,  in  the  nature  and  design  of  Chris- 
tianity, they  yet  consider  that  the  same  modes 
of  criticism  and  explanation  are  to  be  applied 
to  these  Scriptures  as  to  all  other  ancient  writ- 
ings. 

The  two  classes  of  Christians  of  which  we 
speak  regard  each  other  with  different  feelings, 
partly  from  the  very  nature  of  their  opposite 
opinions,  and  partly,  perhaps,  from  the  temper 
and  disposition,  or  from  the  habits  of  thinking 
and  investigation,  which  may  in  the  one  and  in 
the  other  lead  to  the  adoption  of  these  opin- 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.        19 

ions.  A  liberal  Christian  is  disposed  fully  to 
acknowledge  the  piety,  the  religious  earnest- 
ness, and  the  services  to  God  and  man,  of  .some 
of  his  opponents.  However  erroneous  he  may 
think  their  religious  opinions,  he  has  no  dispo- 
sition to  call  in  question  their  motives  or  their 
sincerity.  But  he  will  hardly  expect  in  return, 
that  even  such  men  should  be  able  very  fairly 
to  estimate,  or  ready  very  warmly  to  praise,  the 
at  least  equal  virtues  of  some  of  those  who 
think  very  differently  from  them. 

Various  charges  have  of  course  been  brought 
against  liberal  Christians,  some  of  which  it  is 
our  intention  to  examine.  The  first  we  shall 
notice  is,  that,  if  our  opinions  be  true,  Chris- 
tianity is  something  of  small  value  ;  that  it  re- 
veals nothing  but  what  might  be  discovered, 
and  what  had  been  discovered,  by  unassisted  rea- 
son ;  that  the  heathen  philosophers  had  correct 
notions  of  God  and  a  belief  of  a  future  state ; 
and  that  it  is  not  supposable  that  God  should 
make  a  revelation  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  what  he  had  enabled  us  by  our  nat- 
ural faculties  to  discover.  To  this  objection  it 
may  be  replied,  that  there  is  a  very  great  dif- 
ference between  believing  certain  truths  to  be 
the  most  important  principles  of  action,  truths 
which   ought   to    influence   and    regulate    the 


20       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

whole  of  life,  and  this  upon  evidence  which 
leaves  no  painful  uncertainty,  and  considering 
the  same  truths  merely  as  speculative  opinions, 
for  which  it  would  be  a  very  pleasant  thing  to 
find  evidence,  and  in  favor  of  which  we  may 
think  there  is  an  over-balance  of  probabilities. 
This  was  the  state  of  some  of  the  ancient 
philosophers  in  respect  to  the  doctrine  of  a 
future  life.  With  regard  to  the  unity  and 
character  of  God,  we  believe  that  not  much 
is  to  be  found  in  what  they  have  left  us  of 
their  opinions,  which,  when  properly  under- 
stood, may  be  brought  to  prove  that  they  had 
a  correct  idea  of  one  supreme  and  infinite 
Being.  But  these  are  points  which  in  relation 
to  our  present  purpose  are  not  worth  contest- 
ing. If  it  could  be  maintained,  that  the  an- 
cient philosophers  had  as  correct  notions  con- 
cerning God,  the  future  state,  and  man's  im- 
mortality, as  we  may  derive  from  Christianity, 
still  the  value  of  our  religion  would  not,  in  our 
view,  be  sensibly  diminished.  Before  this  can 
be  done,  it  must  be  proved  that  the  doctrine  of 
a  future  state  of  retribution  had  some  consider- 
able influence,  we  do  not  say  on  the  generality 
of  men  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
but  on  the  generality  of  men  in  the  most  en- 
lightened heathen  nations ;  it  must  be  proved 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       21 

that  this  principle  was  a  motive  and  a  restraint, 
regulating  their  course  of  life  in  a  considerable 
proportion  of  men ;  it  must  be  proved,  not  that 
there  were  a  few  solitary  individuals  who  had 
correct  notions  of  God,  which  they  did  not 
dare  publicly  to  communicate  (we  are  not  now 
ready  to  believe  that  there  were  such  individ- 
uals); not  that  correct  notions  of  God  any- 
where generally  prevailed  (we  do  not  ask  for  the 
proof  of  any  thing  so  absurd  as  this)  ;  but  that 
there  was  some  considerable  hope,  some  reason- 
able expectation,  that  such  notions  would  gen- 
erally prevail  without  the  aid  of  revelation. 
When  these  things  are  proved,  and  when  we 
are  further  convinced,  that  the  effects  of  Chris- 
tianity, considered  as  a  revelation,  have  been 
much  less  than  we  now  estimate  them,  and 
that  there  is  no  such  vast  difference  as  we  be- 
lieve between  those  nations  where  it  now  pre- 
vails with  some  approach  to  its  proper  in- 
fluence, and  the  most  civilized  nations  of  an- 
tiquity ;  or  that  this  difference  is  to  be  ascribed 
principally  to  some  other  cause  than  the  recep- 
tion of  those  doctrines,  the  teaching  of  which 
we  regard  as  its  essential  purpose  ;  when  we 
consider  all  this  as  established,  we  may  then 
doubt,  not  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  but  of 
the  inestimable  value  we  now  assign  to  it. 


22       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

The  end  of  all  religion  is  to  make  men  bet- 
ter. Now  there  is  no  motive  which  can  be 
compared,  in  its  influence  upon  the  moral  con- 
duct of  men,  with  the  belief  of  a  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments.  Where  this  exists, 
it  gives  strength  and  efficacy  to  every  other 
proper  principle ;  and,  where  it  is  wanting,  no 
great  effects  are  to  be  expected  from  any  other 
motive  of  a  moral  or  religious  nature.  It  is  a 
motive,  which  is  alike  applicable  to  the  minds 
of  all  men ;  but  it  can  only  be  brought  to  act 
upon  the  minds  of  men,  when  it  rests  for  sup- 
port on  express  revelation.  If,  therefore,  the 
disclosure  of  this  future  state  had  been  its  sin- 
gle purpose,  we  do  not  think  that  Christianity 
would  have  been  at  all  unworthy  of  all  that 
ceremony  of  preparation  in  the  Jewish  econo- 
my by  which  it  was  preceded,  and  of  all  that 
splendor  of  miracles  by  which  its  descent  on 
earth  was  accompanied.  We  do  not  think 
that  even  this  single  purpose  would  have  been 
unworthy  of  his  mission,  one  of  whose  last  and 
most  solemn  declarations  concerning  himself 
was,  "  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear 
witness  to  the  Truth." 

We  proceed  to  notice  another  charge  against 
liberal  Christians  similar  to  the  one  we  have 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       23 

been  considering.  It  has  been  said,  that  there 
is  no  difference  between  them  and  a  sober  and 
rational  infidel,  who  believes  the  being,  the 
providence,  and  moral  government  of  God,  and 
a  future  state ;  such  a  one,  for  instance,  as  Lord 
Herbert  of  Cherbury.  To  this  it  may  be  re- 
plied, in  the  first  place,  that  such  instances  are 
rare  ;  and  that  the  reception  of  what  we  regard 
as  the  doctrines  of  revelation  is  not  often  to  be 
met  with,  unconnected  with  the  reception  of 
revelation  itself.  Lord  Herbert  was  an  extra- 
ordinary man,  a  man  forced  off  and  driven 
away  from  Christianity  by  what  we  consider  as 
the  corruptions  by  which  in  his  time  it  was 
surrounded.  If,  however,  there  be  any  man, 
who  has  honestly  sought  after  the  truth  with- 
out finding  it,  and  who,  relying  upon  natural 
religion  alone,  has  devoted  himself  to  the  love 
and  service  of  God,  and  trusts  in  his  mercy, 
and  looks  forward  to  immortality,  —  if  there 
be  any  such  man,  we  are  not  solicitous  to 
point  out  distinctions  between  him  and  our- 
selves, for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  he 
has  less  reason  than  we  have  to  hope  for 
the  mercy  of  our  common  Father.  But  we 
do  not  mean  to  dismiss  the  objection  with 
this  answer.  That  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween a  liberal  Christian  and   an   unbeliever, 


24       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

is  one  of  those  loose  and  undefined  proposi- 
tions, whose  want  of  truth  may  not  be  per- 
ceived by  him  who  urges  it,  on  account  of 
its  indistinctness  of  meaning.  If  it  be  meant, 
that  there  is  no  difference  in  respect  to  moral 
goodness,  and  that  the  rejection  of  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  our  opponents  is  as  culpable  as  the 
rejection  of  Christianity,  we  may  assent  to 
this,  when  we  are  convinced,  first,  that  these 
doctrines  are  true;  next,  that  their  evidence 
is  as  clear  and  satisfactory  as  that  of  revelation 
itself;  and,  lastly,  that  they  are  in  the  highest 
degree  important,  so  as  to  make  the  obligation 
as  binding,  on  all  those  who  doubt,  to  ex* 
amine  their  evidence,  as  to  examine  that  of 
revelation.  If  it  be  meant,  that  an  unbeliever 
may  receive  what  we  consider  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  religion  with  such  an  assent  as  to  pro- 
duce in  him  as  strong  dispositions  to  perform 
his  duty  to  God  and  man  as  exist  in  any  liberal 
Christian,  we  answer,  that  in  the  present  state 
of  light  and  knowledge  we  do  not  think  it  a 
probable  case ;  but  if  it  be  a  supposable  one, 
it  is  likewise  supposable,  that  such  an  unbe- 
liever should  in  this  respect  be  on  an  equality 
with  an  orthodox  Christian ;  and  that  for  our- 
selves, to  take  the  example  which  may  be 
brought  against  us,  we  do  not  think  that  Lord 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       25 

Herbert  was  inferior  in  Christian  charity  to 
Calvin,  or  in  truth  and  honesty  to  Beza,  or  in 
real  piety  and  holiness  to  either.  If  it  be 
meant,  and  this  seems  to  be  the  only  meaning 
which  remains,  that  there  are  no  essential  dif- 
ferences of  belief  between  a  rational  unbeliever 
and  a  liberal  Christian ;  we  answer,  that  there 
is  at  first  sight  a  difference,  which  in  the  age  of 
the  Apostles  was  considered  essential,  that  the 
one  "  confesses  with  his  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  believes  in  his  heart  that  God  raised  him 
from  the  dead,"  and  that  the  other  makes  no 
such  confession  and  has  no  such  belief;  we  an- 
swer, that  there  is  a  most  important  difiference 
between  him  who  believes  that  Christianity  is 
a  revelation  from  heaven,  together  with  all  the 
consequences  of  this  belief,  and  him  who  con- 
siders it  as  a  system  of  fraud  and  folly,  and 
admits  all  the  consequences  of  this  opinion ; 
between  him  who  believes  Jesus  Christ  to  have 
been  a  messenger  from  God,  and  to  have  given 
by  far  the  highest  example  of  moral  excellence 
ever  exhibited  to  mankind,  and  him  who  has 
at  best  no  definite  notions  respecting  his  char- 
acter, and  who  can  with  reason  and  consistency 
regard  him  as  nothing  better  than  an  impostor 
or  enthusiast ;  between  him  who  believes  that 
God  has  never  ceased  to  manifest  his  care  for 

3 


26       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

men,  and  that,  by  various  dispensations  adapted 
to  the  different  ages  of  the  world,  he  has  been 
preserving  the  knowledge  of  himself,  and  pre- 
paring them  for  his  final  dispensation  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  him  who  believes  that  God  has 
cast  the  world  from  his  hand  and  left  us  to 
ourselves,  to  the  guidance  of  that  reason  which 
is  so  easily  deceived,  so  various  and  opposite 
in  its  decisions,  so  weak  to  enforce  its  dictates, 
and  which,  without  the  assistance  of  revela- 
tion, is  so  full  of  hesitation  and  uncertainty 
upon  our  most  important  concerns. 

But  we  are  accused,  to  proceed  to  another 
charge,  of  being  remiss  and  indifferent  in  our 
regard  to  religion.  If  it  be  so,  it  is  not  the 
fault  of  our  principles.  With  him  to  whom 
our  religion  affords  no  motives  to  holiness,  and 
no  objects  to  interest  and  elevate  his  affections, 
all  motives  and  all  objects  must  be  in  vain. 
There  can  be  none  more  interesting,  there  can 
be  none  higher  and  more  awful. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  display  of  regard  for 
religion,  sometimes  ostentatious,  and  some- 
times offensive,  which  we  believe  is  much 
more  rarely  to  be  found  in  liberal  Christians 
than  in  others.  But  he  must  have  little  ac- 
quaintance with  human  nature,  who  does  not 
know^  that  the  affectation  of  any  virtue  is  one  of 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       27 

the  worst  proofs  of  its  existence.  It  is  not 
common  for  a  man  of  humanity  and  benevo- 
lence to  talk  much  of  his  humane  and  benevo- 
lent feelings,  nor  for  a  man  of  courage  to 
assume  the  air  of  a  braggart,  nor  for  a  man  of 
honesty  and  truth  to  make  professions  of  his 
honesty  and  assertions  of  his  veracity.  The 
case  in  respect  to  religion  is  indeed  somewhat 
different  from  what  it  is  in  respect  to  the  social 
virtues  ;  as  it  is  not  so  strongly  as  these  sup- 
ported by  the  opinion  of  the  world.  It  becomes, 
therefore,  the  duty  of  men  of  virtue  and  in- 
fluence, a  duty  very  different  from  that  ostenta- 
tious display  of  which  we  have  been  speaking, 
openly  to  profess  their  respect  for  it,  and  on 
various  occasions  of  life  in  a  particular  manner 
to  manifest  this  respect.  In  the  performance 
of  this  duty  we  do  not  know  that  liberal  Chris- 
tians can  be  charged  with  being  less  faithful 
than  others. 

But  we  do  not,  it  has  been  said,  make  re- 
ligion a  common  subject  of  conversation.  By 
this  we  understand  to  be  meant,  not  that  we 
refrain  from  conversing  about  its  evidences,  its 
doctrines,  or'  the  subjects  of  critical  inquiry 
connected  with  it,  in  society  where  such  sub- 
jects may  properly  be  introduced ;  but  that  we 
do  not  discourse  about  our   religious   feelings 


28       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTLiNlTY. 

and  affections,  and  concerning  the  truths  of  re- 
ligion with  particular  application  to  ourselves 
or  those  with  whom  we  are  conversing.  To 
this  we  answer,  that  there  are  subjects  not 
to  be  talked  of  except  in  a  very  serious  state 
of  mind,  and  with  an  immediate  sense  of 
their  importance;  and  that  we  do  not  think 
the  hours  of  innocent  gaiety  and  relaxation 
the  most  proper  time  for  the  introduction 
of  such  subjects.  There  would  be  much 
danger  of  their  losing  their  solemnity  and 
their  awfulness,  if  too  frequently  or  familiarly 
introduced.  It  is  offensive  to  a  man  of  correct 
mind  to  make  his  deepest  feelings  and  his 
strongest  affections  a  subject  of  common  dis- 
course, to  borrow  the  fire  of  the  altar  for  the 
common  uses  of  life.  He  who  commanded  us 
to  enter  into  our  closets  to  pray,  did  not  intend 
that  we  should  come  forth  to  announce  with 
what  dispositions  we  may  have  performed  the 
duty.  For  that  man,  therefore,  we  should  feel 
the  highest  respect,  whose  conversation  should 
be  habitually  regulated  by  religion  and  morali- 
ty ;  who  should  imply  his  sense  of  their  obli- 
gations much  oftener  than  he  directly  ex- 
pressed it;  who  should  be  always  ready  to 
converse  on  those  subjects  which  require  the 
most  serious  state  of  mind,  when  his  advice,  his 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       29 

warnings,  his  encouragement,  or  his  consola- 
tion might  be  of  any  value ;  but  who  for  the 
most  part  in  the  common  intercourse  of  life 
should  "  silent  let  his  morals  tell  his  mind." 

Before  it  is  attempted  to  confound  liberal 
Christians  with  unbelievers,  and  before  they  are 
accused  of  indifference  to  Christianity,  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  inquire,  who  have  been  its 
most  able  and  satisfactory  advocates.  There 
are  none  who  in  this  respect  are  to  be  placed 
in  the  same  rank  with  Grotius,  Butler,  Lard- 
ner,  Paley,  and  Priestley.  With  regard  to 
Bishop  Butler,  we  do  not  mean  to  quote  his 
authority  in  support  of  our  belief,  nor  do  we 
feel  the  less  respect  for  his  character  because 
we  do  not  assent  to  all  his  opinions.  If  his 
name  should  be  denied  us,  however,  it  cannot 
be  claimed  by  our  opponents.  We  believe  that 
his  works  are  read  and  their  high  value  felt  by 
none  more  than  by  liberal  Christians  ;  and  this 
could  not  be,  if  his  views  of  religion  in  what  is 
most  essential  and  important  were  different 
from  theirs.  With  regard  to  the  others  whom 
we  have  mentioned,  we  suppose  there  will  be 
little  dispute  respecting  the  class  in  which 
they  are  to  be  reckoned. 

We  have  no  doubt,  that  what  we  consider 
the  corruptions  of  Christianity  are  the  cause  of 


30       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

unbelief  in  some,  and  of  indifference  and  inat- 
tention to  religion  in  many.  There  are  those, 
who,  partially  feeling  the  force  of  the  evidences 
of  our  religion,  are  unable  to  reconcile  them- 
selves to  what  have  been  taught  them  as  its 
doctrines,  and,  having  never  properly  examined 
any  other  views  of  it,  do  in  a  great  measure 
dismiss  the  subject  from  their  minds.  Our  op- 
ponents will  call  this  the  dislike  of  corrupt 
human  nature  to  the  truth ;  we  shall  call  it  the 
repulsion  of  our  reason  and  our  natural  feel- 
ings to  their  doctrines.  These  men,  whom 
'their  doctrines  have  thus  alienated  from  Chris- 
tianity, we  wish  to  reconcile  to  our  religion, 
and  make  rational  and  consistent  Christians ; 
but  for  their  indifference,  or  their  infidelity,  we 
are  not  accountable. 

Another  charge  against  liberal  Christians  is, 
that  they  reduce  religion  to  a  mere  system  of 
morals,  that  they  teach  and  regard  as  essential 
nothing  more  than  a  worldly  and  pagan  mo- 
rality. If  it  be  true,  that  we  teach  morality, 
and  regard  it  as  essential,  it  is  praise  which  we 
shall  not  willingly  relinquish.  It  is  true,  that 
we  have  no  respect  for  that  religion,  which, 
where  the  means  of  doing  good  exist,  does  not 
manifest  itself  in  a  life  of  usefulness;  which 
does  not  prompt  to  continual  exertion,  not  to 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       31 

any  violent  and  irregular  starlings  off  from  our 
proper  sphere,  for  the  purpose  of  some  extra- 
ordinary course  of  action,  which  the  world  may 
wonder  at,  but  to  a  patient,  regular,  faithful, 
unostentatious  discharge  of  daily,  and  it  may  be 
humble  duties.  The  religion  which  we  re- 
spect does  not  produce  any  temporary,  un- 
natural excitement  of  feelings,  which  may,  or 
may  not,  have  a  very  little  to  do  with  personal 
holiness ;  but  it  forms  habits  of  virtue  and  self- 
control,  it  restrains  the  passions,  it  regulates 
the  temper,  and  it  produces  throughout  the 
whole  character  a  gradual  but  constant  prog- 
ress in  excellence.  It  has  no  sectarian  air, 
no  habitual  look  of  gloom  and  repulsion,  no 
assuming  of  censorship  and  superiority;  but 
it  mingles  in  the  world,  and  sheds  a  beneficial 
and  improving  influence  on  all  around,  and 
regulates  in  its  possessor,  either  directly  or  as 
a  more  remote  principle,  all  his  actions  toward 
his  fellow-creatures. 

It  is  true,  also,  that  we  regard  with  thorough 
dislike  the  manner  in  which  a  virtuous  and 
religious  life,  or,  to  use  language  that,  how- 
ever proper  in  itself,  may  recall  the  barbarous 
jargon  of  technical  theology,  in  which  good 
works  are  spoken  of  in  the  creeds  of  Calvinism 
and  in  the  writings  of  men  of  this  belief     We 


32       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

think,  that  the  sentiments  to  which  we  refer  in 
these  creeds  and  writings  are  not  less  hostile 
to  morality,  than  the  doctrines  with  which  they 
are  connected  are  injurious  to  religion.  There 
is  nothing  to  which  our  irregular  passions  will 
not  sooner  submit,  than  to  the  uniform  observ- 
ance of  those  rules  of  piety  and  virtue,  which 
never  intermit  their  authority,  and  never  relax 
their  obligation ;  but  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
forming  an  alliance  between  religion  and  the 
passions,  if  the  former  can  be  understood  as  not 
directly  connected  with  this  observance.  One 
cause  of  the  prevalence  of  almost  all  the  cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity  is  the  desire  to  substi- 
tute something  else  instead  of  personal  holi- 
ness; to  make  something  different  from  this 
the  foundation  of  our  hope  of  God's  mercy. 
To  this  cause  we  may  attribute  the  penances, 
pilgrimages,  ceremonies,  and  indulgences  of  the 
Romish  church,  which  have  been  made  substi- 
tutes for  a  good  life ;  and  to  the  same  indispo- 
sition to  consider  this  as  essential  we  may  as- 
cribe, in  a  considerable  degree,  the  doctrines  of 
imputed  sin  and  imputed  righteousness,  of  a 
nature  thoroughly  corrupt,  during  whose  ex- 
istence we  can  perform  no  good  action,  and  of 
its  miraculous  renovation,  after  which  we  can- 
not finally  fall  away,  and,  above  all,  the  manner 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       33 

of  speaking  before  referred  to,  respecting  a  vir- 
tuous life.  Let  us  not,  however,  be  misunder- 
stood. We  do  not  confound  the  general  cause 
of  the  prevalence  of  certain  doctrines  with  the 
particular  cause  of  their  reception  by  many  in- 
dividuals, nor  the  natural  tendency  of  those 
doctrines  with  their  actual  operation.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  there  are  Catholics  and 
Calvinists  who  would  insist  strongly  on  the 
necessity  of  habitual  virtue. 

These  views  of  religion  and  of  the  doctrines 
of  Calvinism  are  what  probably  have  given 
occasion  to  the  charge  we  are  noticing,  which 
is  made,  we  suppose,  with  very  little  attention 
to  its  force  or  meaning.  If  there  be  any  one 
who  seriously  thinks  it  true,  —  who  thinks  that 
we  regard  no  other  duties  than  those  of  man 
to  man,  and  rely  on  no  other  motives  to  virtue 
than  what  the  present  life  affords ;  that  we  be- 
lieve in  God  with  somewhat  more  delightful 
views,  we  suppose  it  must  be  confessed,  of  his 
nature  and  moral  government,  than  what  many 
other  Christians  entertain,  and  yet  regard  him 
with  no  love,  nor  reverence,  nor  fear,  and  do 
not  make  this  belief  the  foundation  of  all  vir- 
tue and  of  all  hope;  that  we  believe  Jesus 
Christ  to  have  been  the  messenger  of  God,  and 
yet  view  his  perfect  character  with  no  admira- 


34       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTL\N1TY. 

tion,  and  his  labors  and  suiFerings  with  no 
gratitude;  that  we  believe  in  a  future  life  of 
happiness  and  misery,  and  yet  regard  its  most 
awful  sanctions  with  indifference ;  —  if  there  be 
any  one  who  thinks  all  this  true,  we  suppose 
no  attempt  could  be  more  hopeless,  than  the 
attempt  to  undeceive  him. 

But,  to  notice  another  charge,  it  is  said  that 
we  deprive  religion  of  all  its  doctrines  which 
may  give  joy  or  consolation,  that  our  principles 
afford  no  hope  in  life  and  no  comfort  in  death. 
Some  doctrines  we  reject,  which  we  should 
think  not  fruitful  of  joy  and  consolation,  and 
which  we  believe  have  driven  many  persons 
sincerely  good  to  gloom  and  despondency, 
and  some  to  melancholy  and  madness ;  and 
such  consequences  we  should  suppose  they 
would  naturally  produce,  we  do  not  say  in 
a  common  mind,  but  in  a  mind  of  sensibili- 
ty, of  proper  affections,  and  in  the  habit  of 
thinking  seriously  on  religious  subjects.  If  it 
be  thought,  however,  that  our  views  of  the 
present  condition  of  men  are  little  adapted  to 
promote  happiness  or  virtue,  we  may  compare 
them  with  those  to  which  they  are  opposed. 
We  believe  that  man  is  a  being  possessed  of 
powers,  which  he  may  abuse,  and  which  it  is 
morally  impossible  that  he  should  not  in  some 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTLA.NITY.       35 

instances  abuse,  before  he  has  formed  habits 
of  exercising  them  aright;  and  of  passions, 
whose  natural  tendency  to  excess  is  to  be  re- 
strained by  experiencing  the  ill  effects  of  this 
excess  in  himself,  or  witnessing  them  in  others. 
We  believe  that  his  highest  happiness  consists 
in  the  right  exercise  of  these  powers,  and  the 
proper  indulgence  of  some  of  these  passions. 
Of  this  highest  happiness,  therefore,  he  is  of 
course  incapable,  till  he  has  formed  habits  of 
virtue,  that  is,  of  properly  exercising  his 
powers,  and  habits  of  self-control,  that  is,  of 
properly  restraining  his  passions.  For  the 
formation  of  these  habits,  we  believe  the  pres- 
ent life  to  be  a  state  of  discipline  admirably 
adapted.  If  these  habits  be  here  formed,  we 
believe  that  he  will  be  removed  to  a  better 
state  of  existence,  adapted  to  his  improved 
nature,  where  Ave  think  it  is  the  doctrine  of 
reason  and  of  revelation,  that  his  faculties  will 
be  continually  enlarging,  and  new  objects  be 
continually  presented  to  his  intellect  and  his 
affections.  If,  on  the  contrary,  habits  of  irreg- 
ularity and  vice  be  formed,  he  cannot  be  happy. 
The  whole  order  of  nature  must  first  be  re- 
versed. As  to  his  future  state,  we  leave  it  in 
the  same  terrible  uncertainty  in  which  it  is 
left  by  revelation.     Now  to  this  view,  which 


36       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

represents  all  men  as  made  capable  of  obtain- 
ing, through  the  mercy  and  love  of  their  com- 
mon Father,  eternal  blessedness,  and  made 
capable  of  continual  progress  in  happiness 
and  virtue,  what  is  opposed  so  much  more 
joyful  and  consolatory  "?  A  scheme  before 
noticed,  which  represents  all  mankind,  since 
our  first  parents,  as  created  by  God  with  na- 
tures so  corrupt  as  to  be  able  to  do  nothing 
to  save  themselves  from  eternal  misery.  We 
use  the  mildest  language  possible ;  that  of  the 
creeds  and  confessions  is,  that  mankind  are 
under  "  God's  displeasure  and  curse ;  so  as  we 
are  by  nature  children  of  wrath,  bond-slaves  to 
Satan,  and  justly  liable  to  all  punishments  in 
this  world  and  that  which  is  to  come.  And 
the  punishments  in  the  world  to  come  are  ever- 
lasting separation  from  the  comfortable  pres- 
ence of  God  and  most  grievous  torments  in 
soul  and  body  without  intermission  in  hell-iire 
for  ever."  *  From  this  terrible  condition  a  part 
of  mankind  are  saved  through  the  atonement 
of  Christ.  They  are  chosen  from  among  the 
rest,  not  because  they  are  better  than  those 
who  are  left,  nor  with  reference  to  any  works 
or  endeavors  of  their  own,  but  out  of  God's 

*  Westminster  Assembly's  Larger  Catechism. 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       37 

mere  good  pleasure.  We  give  the  doctrine  of 
the  creeds  ;  some  may  choose  to  affirm  that 
this  election  is  not  with  any  certain  and  natu- 
ral reference  to  their  own  endeavors,  but  may 
shrink  from  the  assertion  of  more  hardy  ortho- 
doxy, that  good  actions  performed  by  unregen- 
erate  men  are  sinful  *  Those  who  are  thus  cho- 
sen are  made  regenerate,  that  is,  their  natures 
undergo  a  miraculous  renovation,  and  they  be- 
come fit  for  heaven.  Those  who  are  left  perish 
everlastingly,  without  possibility  of  escape.  We 
shall  make  no  comment  upon  this  scheme,  nor 
urge  the  comparison  that  we  have  mentioned. 
We  will  only  observe,  that  we  suppose  there 
are  some  men,  who  receive  what  is  most  essen- 
tial in  it,  who  yet  may  be  shocked  at  the  horri- 
ble absurdity  of  language  in  which  parts  of  it 
are  sometimes  expressed.  Let  such  men  define 
their  notions,  and  see  how  far  they  do  in  fact 
difier  from  the  original  doctrines. 

But  it  may  be  said,  that  he,  who,  according 
to  the  scheme  just  mentioned,  believes,  or,  as 
some  will  have  it,  knows,  himself  to  be  one 
of  the  elect,  must  have  a  much  more  joyful 
confidence  in  God's  peculiar  love  and  mercy, 

*  Good  actions,  that  is  to  say,  "  works  that  for  the  matter  of 
them  may  be  things  which  God  commands,  and  of  good  use  both 
to  themselves  and  others."  —  V^^estrainster  Assembly's  Confession 
of  Faith,  Ch.  XVI.  §  7. 
4 


38       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

than  any  one  can  enjoy  upon  our  principles. 
It  may  be  so.  The  best  of  us  can  have  no 
more  confidence  than  what  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  possessed,  and  can  only 
say  with  him,  "  We  trust  we  have  a  good  con- 
science." We  can  have  no  more  assurance  than 
St.  Paul  enjoyed,  when  he  told  the  Corinthians 
of  his  care  "  lest  by  any  means,  after  having 
preached  to  others,  he  himself  should  become  a 
castaway."  We  can  have  no  other  confidence 
than  what  arises  from  the  testimony  of  our 
consciences,  and  a  perfect  trust  in  the  impartial 
mercy  of  God ;  and,  if  there  be  those  who  pos- 
sess any  other,  we  think  it  built  on  a  very  fal- 
lacious foundation,  and  suppose  that  it  is  for  the 
most  part  somewhat  wavering  and  uncertain. 

If  our  religion  be  the  guide  of  our  life,  we 
have  no  fear  that  she  will  desert  us  in  its  trials 
and  sorrows,  or  that  her  aid  will  be  ineffectual 
for  our  support.  The  companion  of  our  pros- 
perity will  make  adversity  a  lesson  of  virtue, 
and  enable  us  to  bear  it  with  resignation,  and 
perhaps  with  cheerfulness.  And  in  that  hour 
when  we  shall  have  no  other  support,  and  no 
other  availing  comforter,  she  will  not  fail  us. 
Through  her  influence  the  visions  of  immortali- 
ty, to  which  in  life  she  has  directed  our  eyes, 
will  grow  brighter  and  more  distinct  around 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       39 

our  death-bed,  as  all  other  objects  are  receding. 
We  have  no  envy  for  him  who  can  speak  of 
her  as  wanting  in  joy,  or  poor  in  consolation. 
We  desire  only,  that  we  may  be  more  worthy 
of  her  joys  and  consolations,  and  feel  a  more 
profound  gratitude  to  Him  from  whom  she  has 
descended. 

But,  whatever  may  be  the  character  or  the 
influence  of  our  opinions,  it  is  still  further 
urged  against  us,  that  these  opinions  are  sup- 
ported by  unnatural  constructions  of  Scripture, 
by  rejecting  the  plain  sense  and  substituting  a 
forced  meaning  in  its  place.  If  by  the  plain 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  be  meant  that  which 
would  first  occur  to  a  person  educated  in  the 
belief  of  certain  doctrines,  which  liberal  Chris- 
tians consider  no  part  of  Christianity,  and  read- 
ing them  in  an  English  translation  without  any 
knowledge  of  the  original  language,  or  any  col- 
lateral learning  to  assist  in  the  right  under- 
standing of  them,  then,  as  to  a  considerable 
part  of  the  Scriptures,  the  charge  is  to  be  ad- 
mitted. Whether  or  not  it  will  be  a  very  seri- 
ous one  is  a  further  question ;  and  whether  or 
not  this  should  be  considered  the  plain  sense 
of  Scripture  depends  in  a  considerable  degree 
on  the  decision  of  the  question,  which  of  the 
two  modes  of  interpretation  formerly  mentioned 


40       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTL^NITY. 

is  preferable.  To  one  reading  the  Scriptures 
in  the  manner  we  have  mentioned,  an  unjusti- 
fiable construction  may  appear  to  be  put  upon 
many  passages,  which  have  long  been  forced 
into  the  support  of  theological  systems,  when 
they  are  only  restored  to  their  true  and  natural 
meaning.  But,  supposing  it  to  be  granted  that 
the  Christian  Scriptures  are  to  be  studied  in 
the  same  manner  as  all  other  ancient  writings, 
and  that  a  variety  of  ancient  learning  is  to  be 
brought  to  their  elucidation,  -a  knowledge  of 
Jewish  and  heathen  antiquities,  of  the  language 
in  which  they  were  written,  and  of  this  lan- 
guage as  affected  by  the  modes  of  Oriental  and 
Jewish  phraseology,  of  Jewish  opinions,  of  the 
controversies  which  prevailed  in  the  time  of  the 
Apostles,  and  of  all  those  other  circumstances 
which  may  tend  to  explain  the  general  design 
of  the  different  writings  and  the  particular 
meaning  of  single  passages  ;  —  granting  that 
this  is  to  be  done,  if  then  it  be  affirmed,  that 
we  reject  what  in  this  mode  of  study  may  ap- 
pear the  plain  sense  of  Scripture,  we  deny  the 
charge.  But  we  do  more ;  we  contend  that  our 
opinions  are  supported  by  the  plain  sense  and 
the  general  tenor  of  Scripture,  such  as  it  will 
appear  to  the  most  illiterate,  if  at  the  same 
time  he  be  an  unprejudiced  reader.     We  con- 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       41 

tend,  that  the  doctrines  of  our  opponents  are 
contradicted  by  the  general  meaning  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  are  apparently  supported  only  by  a 
few  detached  passages.  Let  us  take,  for  ex- 
ample, that  doctrine  which  places  Jesus  Christ 
on  an  equality  with  the  God  and  Father  of  us 
all.  By  the  removal  of  a  very  few  passages 
we  might  leave  a  volume  not  sensibly  dimin- 
ished in  bulk,  in  no  part  of  which  w^ould  this 
doctrine  find  any  support,  and  to  many  parts 
of  which  it  would  appear  altogether  contradic- 
tory. If  we  take,  for  another  example,  the 
doctrine  of  the  total  impotence  of  man  and 
irresistible  grace,  we  may  go  through  the  New 
Testament,  and,  with  not  many  strokes  of  the 
pen  blotting  out  every  passage  in  which  it  can 
be  pretended  that  this  doctrine  finds  support, 
we  shall  leave  a  body  of  doctrines,  and  pre- 
cepts, and  promises,  and  exhortations,  and 
threatenings,  to  which  it  will  appear  wholly 
irreconcilable.  It  is  in  the  explanation  of 
those  difficult  and  perverted  passages  which 
seem  to  give  countenance  to  such  doctrines, 
difficult  because  they  have  been  so  long  per- 
verted, that  one  of  the  principal  uses  of  the 
critical  study  of  the  Scriptures  consists. 

But  it  may  be  further  objected,  that,  if  we 
are  in  the  right,  the  Church,  the   great   ma- 


42       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTLANITY. 

jority  of  Christians,  has  been  for  ages  in  er- 
ror. Be  it  so.  For  how  many  ages,  we  may 
ask  in  reply,  has  the  Church  been  confessedly 
in  error  1  Will  any  Protestant  pretend,  that 
Christianity  existed  among  the  great  majority 
of  Christians  in  any  degree  of  purity  from  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century  to  the  Reformation,  a 
period  of  a  thousand  years  ]  During  this  long 
period  the  articles  of  belief  taught  and  received 
for  its  doctrines  were  such,  as  show  to  what  de- 
basement and  prostration  the  human  mind  may 
be  reduced,  and  how  entirely  the  resistance  of 
reason  to  any  modes  of  faith  may  be  subdued. 
During  this  period  the  superstitions  of  pagan- 
ism were  reinstated  under  other  names  in  the 
temples  of  God.  The  proper  influence  of 
Christianity  could  not  be  wholly  prevented,  nor 
could  its  restoring  power,  its  tendency  to  revive 
and  purify  itself,  be  at  any  time  entirely  hin- 
dered from  acting ;  but  its  authority  was  falsi- 
fied to  minister  to  public  and  private  wicked- 
ness ;  the  religion  of  humility,  benevolence, 
and  purity  was  represented  as  being  in  league 
with  ambition,  cruelty,  and  lust,  and  affording 
them  her  support.  During  all  this  period  the 
light  of  the  moral  world  was  "  in  dim  eclipse, 
shedding  disastrous  twilight."  For  so  long  a 
time,  at  least,  the  authority  of  the  Church  is 
not  of  value  enough  to  be  urged  against  us. 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       43 

We  will  give  a  very  brief  account  of  vrhat 
we  consider  the  causes  of  those  errors  that  have 
been  connected  with  Christianity,  and  that  have 
at  times  almost  hidden  from  view  the  few  sim- 
ple and  sublime  truths,  which  it  was  its  pur- 
pose to  reveal.  To  him  who  considers  the 
state  of  the  world  at  the  time  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  Christianity,  it  will  appear  a  thing  to 
have  been  expected  beforehand,  that,  when  it 
should  no  longer  be  under  the  immediate  care 
of  our  Saviour  and  his  Apostles,  it  would  very 
soon  be  mingled  with  much  error  and  absurdity 
in  the  minds  of  those  by  whom  it  was  em- 
braced. Mankind  were  not  in  a  state  to  receive 
without  corrupting  it  a  religion  so  simple  and 
so  spiritual.  With  regard  to  God,  the  realities 
of  another  life,  and  the  character  which  our 
religion  requires,  the  mass  of  men  had  neither 
ideas  nor  feelings ;  and  even  in  respect  to  the 
social  virtues  it  inculcates,  their  notions  were 
very  erroneous  and  inadequate.  But  every  one 
conversant  with  such  subjects  may  be  able,  in 
some  degree,  to  comprehend  how  difficult  it 
is  to  introduce  into  the  mind  an  entirely  new 
class  of  ideas  and  feelings,  especially  if  they 
relate  to  spiritual  objects;  how  imperfectly 
these  objects  are  discerned  till  the  mind  has 
become    habituated    to    their    contemplation ; 


44       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

how  much  all  ideas  concerning  them  are  de- 
based and  mingled  with  former  sentiments; 
and  how  readily  the  mind  recurs  to  its  prior 
associations,  and  relapses  into  its  old  habits 
of  thought  and  feeling.  It  may  be  easily 
believed,  therefore,  that  the  Gentile  converts 
did  not  immediately  comprehend  all  that  our 
religion  teaches ;  that  they  were  not  free  from 
the  influence  of  their  former  associations  and 
habits,  and  that  they  were  not  at  once  trans- 
formed from  ignorant  heathens  into  enlight- 
ened Christians.  If  a  thing  so  probable  in 
itself  be  in  need  of  extrinsic  proof,  it  may  be 
shown  to  have  been  the  case  from  many  pas- 
sages in  the  writings  of  the  Apostles.  That 
the  Jewish  converts  connected  with  Christianity 
every  thing  in  their  ancient  prejudices  and 
opinions,  which  could  be  united  with  it,  and 
that,  if  unresisted,  they  would  have  introduced 
into  it  some  very  gross  corruptions,  appears 
also  very  fully  from  the  Scriptures  themselves. 
There  were  likewise  in  this  early  age  other 
errors  of  no  small  magnitude,  whose  origin  we 
cannot  so  clearly  trace.  Some,  for  instance, 
taught,  that  the  resurrection  was  already 
past,*    and  others  wrested  (we  know  not  cer- 


*  2  Tim.  ii.  18. 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRTSTLiNITY.       45 

tainly  in  support  of  what  false  doctrines)  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul,  as  well  as  the  Jewish 
Scriptures.*  If  such  dispositions  to  alter  and 
to  add  to  our  religion  existed  in  the  times  of 
the  Apostles,  it  is  probable  that  they  would 
operate  with  much  more  force  as  soon  as  the 
immediate  personal  authority  of  the  Apostles 
was  removed,  and  men's  minds  were  no  longer 
subdued  by  the  visible  display  of  miraculous 
powers. 

But  it  is  not  wholly  nor  principally  to  the 
lower  class  of  Christians,  that  we  are  to  look 
for  the  origin  of  those  errors  which  have  been 
connected  with  Christianity.  We  are  to  refer 
the  greater  part  of  them  to  the  learned  and 
philosophizing  converts;  and  corruptions  from 
this  source  seem  to  have  shown  themselves 
nearly  as  soon  as  from  the  former.  Some  of 
the  heathen  philosophers  deserted  their  schools 
for  the  temples  of  Christianity,  but  they  did 
not  leave  behind  them  their  former  opinions, 
and  they  could  not  leave  behind  them  their 
former  habits  of  mind.  With  what  they  now 
learnt  they  mingled  much  of  what  they  had 
before  been  accustomed  to  teach.  With  their 
ideas  of  Christianity  they  incorporated  some- 

*  2  Peter  iii.  16. 


46       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

what  of  their  former  philosophy ;  they  endeav- 
ored to  discover  resemblances  between  its  doc- 
trines and  those  they  had  lately  held,  and  to 
conform  them  as  far  as  possible  to  each  other. 
This,  which  from  the  very  constitution  of  the 
mind  they  would  naturally  have  done,  they 
had  a  further  inducement  to  do  from  the  desire 
to  recommend  to  others  the  religion  they  had 
themselves  received,  by  representing  it  as  anal- 
ogous to  modes  of  faith  already  existing,  and 
to  systems  of  opinion  already  held  in  respect. 
It  was  doing  the  same  thing,  though  probably 
with  a  less  explicit  acknowledgment  to  them- 
selves of  the  principle  of  their  conduct,  as 
the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  have  since 
been  accustomed  to  do,  in  attempting  the  con- 
version of  pagan  nations  to  Christianity.  A 
principal  source  of  the  errors  which  they  intro- 
duced seems  to  have  been  a  desire  to  elevate 
the  character  of  our  Saviour,  and  'to  make  it 
such  as  they  thought  would  be  more  respected 
by  the  world.  The  strength  of  the  motive  to 
this  ill-directed  ambition  cannot  be  estimated 
by  one  who  does  not  recollect  how  much  of- 
fence it  must  have  given  to  the  pride  of  rank 
and  learning,  that  the  Founder  of  our  religion 
suffered  as  a  malefactor;  that  its  Apostles  were 
in  general  taken  from  the  lower  class  of  men, 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       47 

and  were  continually  exposed  to  those  suffer- 
ings with  which  disgrace  is  usually  associated; 
and  that  it  had  its  origin  in  a  nation  whom 
the  rest  of  the  world  hated  and  despised. 

The  Christian  Fathers  would  less  readily  have 
fallen  into  the  errors  of  which  we  have  spoken, 
if  they  had  been  better  skilled  to  understand 
the  Scriptures.  But,  partaking  before  their 
conversion,  and  even  in  a  considerable  degree 
afterwards,  of  the  common  feelings  of  the 
heathen  world  towards  the  Jews,  they  were  not 
much  disposed  to  make  what  related  to  that 
people  an  object  of  particular  study.  The  lan- 
guage in  which  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  written,  if  they  acquired  it  at  all, 
which  very  few  did,  they  acquired  imperfectly 
after  becoming  Christians.  They  were  in  a 
great  degree  ignorant  of  the  opinions  of  the 
Jews,  their  prejudices,  their  pretensions,  their 
controversies,  their  habits  and  manners,  and 
their  modes  of  phraseology.  But  without  this 
knowledge  many  parts  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, and  especially  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
cannot  be  correctly  understood.  They  were 
likewise  introduced  at  once  to  all  the  new 
ideas  connected  with  a  new  religion,  and  to 
all  the  new  modes  of  expression  in  which 
these  were  of  necessity  conveyed ;    and  these 


48       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

ideas  and  expressions  existed  in  writings,  which 
were  in  a  dialect  different  from  any  thing  to 
which  they  had  been  accustomed,  in  its  forms 
of  construction  and  in  the  signification  of 
language,  using  Greek  words  with  a  Hebrew 
idiom ;  so  that  those  to  whom  Greek  was  their 
common  language  were  perhaps  nearly  as 
much  perplexed  as  assisted,  in  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  by  their  knowledge  of  it  as  spoken 
or  written  by  heathen  nations. 

Disqualified  as  the  Christian  Fathers  thus 
were,  the  Scriptures  could  hardly  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  worse  interpreters  ;  and 
many  of  their  explanations  of  different  pas- 
sages, of  those  adduced  by  them  in  support 
of  their  doctrines  as  well  as  others,  have  ac- 
cordingly been  the  wonder  and  ridicule  of  suc- 
ceeding commentators.  In  the  Scriptures  thus 
imperfectly  understood  they  were  never  at  a 
loss  for  arguments.  The  meaning,  which  was 
so  obscurely  seen,  was  made  to  assume  any 
form  that  fancy  might  choose  to  impose. 
They  interpreted  mystically  and  allegorically  ; 
and  a  passage,  which  in  the  sound  of  the 
words  resembled  a  proposition  in  which  they 
expressed  some  one  of  their  doctrines,  was  not 
among  the  most  contemptible  arguments  they 
brought  to  its  support.     They  began  contend- 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       49 

ing  together,  and  in  their  controversies  they 
mutually  drove  each  other  further  from  the 
truth.  The  doctrines  of  the  orthodox,  hovr- 
ever,  or,  in  other  words,  of  that  party  in  these 
different  controversies  which  finally  prevailed, 
were  established  as  the  true  faith,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  till  the 
time  of  the  Reformation.  The  reformers,  when 
they  broke  off  from  the  remaining  body  of 
Christians,  left  behind  them  many,  but  by  no 
means  all,  of  these  doctrines.  Many  of  them 
still  prevail,  together  with  many  of  the  ex- 
planations and  much  of  the  general  mode  of 
interpreting  Scripture,  with  which  they  were 
connected. 

But  why,  it  may  be  asked,  —  and  the  question 
is  an  important  one,  —  why  was  not  more  resist- 
ance made,  and  made  earlier,  to  errors,  which 
we  consider  of  so  gross  a  nature,  and  connect- 
ed with  a  subject  of  so  much  interest  *?  We 
answer,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  question 
does  not  concern  us  alone.  Why,  we  may  ask 
any  Protestant  in  return,  were  what  he  will  ac- 
knowledge to  be  gross  errors  suffered  to  pre- 
vail almost  unresisted  during  the  ten  centuries 
before  the  Reformation  1  But  we  shall  not  con- 
tent ourselves  with  this  reply.  We  answer, 
that  it  may  be,  and  that  it  has  been,  shown  by 

5 


50       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERxiL  CHRISTIANITY. 

Other  writers,  with  regard  to  some  of  the  most 
important  errors  which  we  oppose,  that  they 
had  their  origin  among  the  learned  and  phi- 
losophizing Christian  converts,  and  that  they 
were  not  introduced  without  difficulty  and 
without  opposition  from  the  great  body  of  the 
unlearned,  who  had  no  prejudices  in  their 
favor;  nor  were  they  introduced  at  once,  but 
gradually.  But,  from  the  period  of  their  intro- 
duction till  almost  our  own  age,  much  further 
resistance  could  not  be  expected.  At  the  time 
when  Christianity  began  generally  to  be  known, 
literature,  and  moral  science,  and  true  philoso- 
phy were  all  on  the  decline.  Indeed,  in  the 
best  days  of  antiquity  there  seems  to  have 
been  but  little  of  that  manly  reasoning  in 
morals  and  in  metaphysics,  that  power  of  treat- 
ing abstract  subjects,  that  vigor  of  mind  that 
repels  error  and  absurdity,  which  we  may  dis- 
cover in  later  times.  There  is  nothing  of  an 
intellectual  nature,  perhaps,  in  which  the  im- 
provement of  mankind  is  more  apparent.  We 
should  seek  in  vain  in  any  ancient  writer  for 
something  resembling  the  reasonings  of  Butler, 
or  the  metaphysics  of  Locke.  If  such,  then, 
was  the  general  character  of  ancient  times, 
there  was  no  reason  to  expect  that  men  would 
be  much  shocked  in  receiving   established  er- 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       51 

rors  and  absurdities  connected  with  Christiani- 
ty, similar  to  those  which  their  predecessors 
had  received  as  making  a  part  of  their  philoso- 
phy, especially  as  this  was  done  in  an  age  of 
still  greater  ignorance  and  less  vigor  of  in- 
quiry, than  that  in  which  this  philosophy  pre- 
vailed. There  was  nothing  in  the  character  of 
the  times  succeeding  the  reign  of  Constantine, 
previous  to  which  some  of  the  most  important 
corruptions  of  Christianity  had  their  origin, 
which  would  lead  one  to  expect  any  powerful 
efforts  of  reason  in  opposing  these  or  any  other 
errors.  Not  long  after  his  reign,  the  barriers 
of  the  Roman  empire  began  to  give  way,  and 
a  flood  of  ignorance  and  barbarism  poured  in 
upon  the  civilized  world.  Then  succeeded  the 
ages  when  the  despotism  of  superstition  was 
confirmed,  and  all  was  passive  under  its  sway. 

This  powder  was  at  last  shaken.  The  minds 
of  men,  having  been  exercised  about  other  ob- 
jects, and  recovering  some  degree  of  strength, 
began  to  react  against  the  religious  tyranny 
by  which  they  were  oppressed.  The  time  of 
the  Reformation  arrived.  The  reformers  freed 
Christianity  from  many  of  the  errors  with 
which  it  had  been  surrounded ;  but  they  left 
many  unassailed,  and  they  substituted  errors  of 
their  own  instead  of  those  which  they  removed. 


52       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

There  are  those  who  consider  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation  as  the  standard  of  true  belief; 
but  to  us  it  seems  a  thing  little  to  be  expected 
beforehand,  that  these  should  be  found  the 
pure  doctrines  of  Christianity.  It  would  have 
been  an  event  without  any  parallel,  if  the  re- 
formers, educated  in  the  belief  of  the  prevailing 
superstitions  and  false  doctrines  of  their  age, 
and  having  them  incorporated  with  all  their 
religious  principles  and  feelings,  had  been  able, 
not  merely  to  free  themselves  from  some  of 
these,  but  to  cast  them  all  oif  together,  and  in 
the  struggle  and  laceration  of  their  minds  to 
examine  and  to  discriminate  all  truth  from  all 
error;  if,  educated  in  the  age  and  in  the  re- 
ligion in  which  they  were,  they  had  possessed 
the  most  enlightened  views,  and  been  able  to 
refer  every  thing  to  the  most  correct  principles ; 
if,  while  vehemently  resisting  some  corruptions, 
to  which  their  attention  was  particularly  drawn, 
they  had  had  leisure  or  disposition  to  turn  aside 
and  to  consider  all  the  other  subjects  connected 
with  our  religion,  and  to  settle  the  most  cor- 
rect belief  upon  these  also;  if  they  had  been 
willing  at  once  to  oppose  themselves  to  later 
and  to  earlier  errors ;  if,  in  setting  themselves 
against  the  Church  as  it  existed  in  their  day, 
they  had  not  wished  to  have  in  their  favor,  or 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTLINITY.       53 

at  least  to  render  neutral,  the  authority  of  the 
Church  in  earlier  times,  and  therefore  felt  lit- 
tle solicitude  to  determine  whether  she  might 
not  even  then  have  departed  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  Gospel ;  if  they  had  had  none  of 
the  very  common  fear  of  carrying  their  in- 
quiries too  far,  and  departing  too  much  from 
the  faith  they  had  once  held;  or  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  the  violence  of  that  fierce  con- 
troversy in  which  they  were  engaged,  they  had 
been  able  coolly  and  impartially  to  estimate 
all  the  arguments  for  and  against  the  opinions 
they  defended ;  if  they  had  assumed  no  untena- 
ble positions ;  if  they  had  never  been  driven  or 
had  never  hurried  over  the  bounds  of  truth; 
if  they  had  never  mistaken  the  reverse  of  wrong 
for  rights  and  never  opposed  one  error  to  another 
(the  doctrine  of  irresistible  grace,  for  instance, 
to  the  doctrine  of  merit) ;  if,  when  men  had  just 
begun  anew  to  study  the  Scriptures,  in  the  in- 
fancy of  scriptural  criticism,  they  had  antici- 
pated all  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
this  most  important  study,  and  rendered  use- 
less, or  worse  than  useless,  in  respect  to  mak- 
ing known  the  true  character  of  Christianity, 
the  labors  of  so  many  eminent  men,  who  have 
in  succeeding  times  devoted  their  lives  to  the 
elucidation  of  the  sacred  writings;  if,  in  fine, 


54       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

receiving  these  writings,  as  we  believe  they  did, 
incrusted  over  with  a  covering  of  false  interpre- 
tations, which  hid  their  original  meaning  from 
view,  they  had  been  able  at  once  to  discern  the 
true  character  of  our  religion.  The  reformers 
were  educated  in  error,  they  were  engaged  in 
violent  controversies,  and  they  lived  in  an  age 
of  comparative  ignorance.  We  do  not  think 
the  authority  of  such  men  of  any  value,  to  es- 
tablish their  doctrines  as  the  standard  of  belief; 
we  do  not  believe  that  the  midnight  darkness 
of  superstition  was  at  once  succeeded  by  the 
noon-day  splendor  of  truth;  our  philosophy 
teaches  us  to  expect  such  changes  as  little  in 
the  moral  as  in  the  natural  world. 

From  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  we  think 
that,  by  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  of 
freedom  of  inquiry,  the  real  character  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  more  and  more  made  known 
among  Protestant  nations ;  and  we  think  we 
discern  the  influence  of  these  more  correct 
views  of  religion  in  the  gradual  but  very  per- 
ceptible improvement  of  these  nations,  during 
the  last  three  centuries,  in  virtue  and  happi- 
ness, in  a  more  established  and  more  general 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  in  a  better  regulated 
state  of  society,  and  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
humane  and  social   affections.     In   comparing 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       55 

the  present  character  and  condition  of  men  in 
these  nations  with  what  it  was  in  the  most  civ- 
ilized countries  at  the  time  of  the  introduction 
of  Christianity,  we  perceive  the  effects  of  our 
religion ;  and,  in  comparing  the  same  present 
state  of  society  with  what  it  was  two  centuries 
ago,  we  perceive,  as  we  think,  the  effects  of  a 
more  improved  knowledge  of  our  religion. 
The  more  directly  the  few  simple  and  most  im- 
portant truths  of  Christianity  can  be  made  to 
act  on  the  minds  of  men  without  being  im- 
peded in  their  operation ;  the  more  men's 
attention  is  directed  to  these  without  being 
distracted  and  occupied  by  the  false  doctrines 
with  which  they  have  been  connected;  the 
more  they  can  be  taught  to  value  themselves 
upon  being  Christians,  and  not  upon  being 
Christians  of  a  certain  sect ;  the  more  difficulty 
they  find  in  mistaking  the  bitter  feelings  of  a 
party  for  zeal  in  the  cause  of  religion ;  the 
more  those  corruptions  can  be  removed,  whose 
tendency  is  to  substitute  something  else  for 
personal  holiness  ;  the  more  our  religion  can  be 
freed  from  those  additions  of  human  weakness 
and  folly,  which  have  debased  its  character  in 
the  regard  of  some  men,  and  men  of  powerful 
minds,  by  w^hom  it  might  otherwise  have  been 
respected,  and  which  have  rendered  many  un- 


56       DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTLiNITY. 

believers,  and  many  doubtful  and  indifferent, 
as  to  its  truth ;  —  the  more  all  this  can  be  done, 
the  more  powerful  and  universal  will  be  its  in- 
fluence. 

But,  while  we  rejoice  in  the  gradual  progress 
of  truth,  we  have  no  intemperate  zeal  for  mak- 
ing proselytes.  Though  gratified,  like  the  rest 
of  the  world,  that  others  should  think  with  us, 
we  can  be  content  that  even  some  of  those 
whom  we  personally  love  and  respect  should 
think  differently.  There  are  many,  especially 
among  the  aged,  whose  belief  we  might  think 
erroneous,  but  whose  belief  we  should  have  no 
disposition  to  disturb.  With  it  are  intwined 
all  their  religious  principles  and  affections, 
and  the  former  could  hardly  be  removed  with- 
out shattering  or  destroying  the  latter.  It  is 
the  lot  of  a  great  part  of  the  world  to  receive 
their  religious  opinions  upon  authority ;  and, 
though  there  are  many  belonging  to  this  class, 
whose  opinions  we  might  by  no  means  esteem 
altogether  true,  yet  we  should  not  be  very 
ready  to  lead  them  to  doubt  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  authority  in  which  they  had  con- 
fided, lest  their  distrust  should  extend  to  all 
they  had  been  taught,  and  because  we  might 
not  be  able  to  substitute  our  own,  instead  of 
that  authority  which  we  had  weakened  or  over- 


DEFENCE  OF  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY.       57 

turned.  To  such  men  we  do  not  address  our- 
selves, or  we  only  address  ourselves  to  say,  that, 
if  their  faith  has  produced  the  fruits  of  good 
living,  if  it  has  shown  itself  in  love  to  God  and 
love  to  man,  we  have  no  question  of  its  ex- 
cellence and  its  sufficiency  to  salvation;  we 
should  be  among  the  last  of  men  to  wish  them 
to  feel  pain  from  any  doubt  of  its  correctness. 
Let  it  be  remembered,  however,  that  we  say 
this  only  to  humble  and  unobtrusive  piety,  and 
not  to  intolerant  ignorance,  which  pretends  to 
dogmatize,  and  to  make  its  own  opinions  the 
standard  of  belief.  On  questions  where  wis- 
dom, and  learning,  and  piety  must  have  decided 
wrong,  because  in  different  men  they  have  given 
opposite  decisions,  it  does  not  become  any  one, 
who  has  not  spent  some  time  and  some  thought 
in  their  examination,  to  intrude  his  opinions, 
and  far  less  to  pronounce  his  censures.  There 
is  an  obligation  upon  every  one,  which  we 
hope  we  do  not  forget,  to  examine,  with  very 
serious  attention,  the  reasonableness  of  that 
faith  which  he  himself  holds,  and  which  he 
would  induce  others  to  receive. 


A 

DISCOURSE 

ON    THE 

EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OE  THEOLOGY; 

DELIVERED    BEFORE 

THE  UNIVERSITY  IN  CAMBRIDGE 
(NEW    ENGLAND), 

AUGUST  10,  1819, 

ON    ASSUMING    THE    DUTIES    OF    DEXTER    PROFESSOR 
OF    SACRED    LITERATURE. 


INAUGXJRAL  DISCOURSE 


The  liberality  of  our  citizens,  and  especially 
of  one  distinguished  individual,*  who  bore  a 
name  which  has  long  been  honored,  and  which 
I  hope  will  long  continue  to  be  honored  among 
us,  having  afforded  new  facilities  for  theologi- 
cal instruction  in  this  University,  an  additional 
professorship  has  in  consequence  been  founded. 
About  to  enter  on  the  duties  of  this  new  office, 
I  have  thought  that  it  would  not  be  uninter- 
esting or  useless  to  speak  of  the  extent  and  re- 
lations of  the  science  of  theology,  or,  in  other 
words,  of  the  intellectual  acquisitions  required 
to  constitute  a  consummate  theologian.  I  can, 
it  is  true,  do  little  more  than  lead  you  to  an 
eminence,  and  point  put  hastily  the  great  fea- 
tures of  the  prospect  which  lies  before  us ;  but 

*  Samuel  Dexter,  the  elder. 
6 


62  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

even  this  rapid  view  may  not  be  altogether  un- 
profitable. 

In  such  a  survey,  it  is  in  its  relations  to  meta- 
physics, that  theology  may  be  first  considered. 
It  treats  of  God,  and  of  man  considered  as  an 
immortal  being.  Upon  these  subjects  revela- 
tion has  taught  us  truths  the  most  important ; 
and  some  of  the  noblest  and  most  powerful 
efforts  of  human  reason  have  been  employed  in 
deducing  the  same  truths  from  the  moral  and 
physical  phenomena  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded. It  is  one  part  of  the  business  of  a 
theologian  to  make  himself  familiar  with  those 
reasonings  by  which  the  mind,  now  that  it  has 
been  educated  by  Christianity,  is  able,  even 
when  trusting  to  its  own  powers  and  resources 
alone,  to  establish  or  render  probable  the  truths 
of  religion.  He  must  become  the  interpreter  of 
the  works  and  providence  of  God,  and  qualify 
himself  to  perceive  the  harmony  between  the 
two  revelations  which  God  has  given  us ;  — 
that,  which  is  made  known  by  the  laws  govern- 
ing the  world,  as  they  proceed  in  their  regular 
operation ;  and  that,  of  which  the  divine  origin 
was  attested  by  the  presence  of  a  power  con- 
trolling and  suspending  those  laws.  He  will 
find  a  perfect  harmony  between  them ;  and  will 
perceive  that  the  evidences  of  both,  though  de- 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.     63 

rived  from  sources  very  remote  from  each  other, 
flow  together  at  last,  and  bear  us  on  to  one 
common  object,  —  the  truth  of  the  essential 
principles  of  religion. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  the  strength  of  argu- 
ment by  which  these  principles  are  supported, 
we  cannot  but  remark  that  our  conclusions  are 
embarrassed  by  some  difiiculties ;  and  we  know 
that  scepticism  has  labored  to  overthrow  all  our 
reasonings.  The  theologian,  in  pursuing  his 
inquiries  respecting  these  difiiculties  and  objec- 
tions, if  he  be  determined  to  follow  them  to  the 
uttermost,  will  be  obliged  to  go  on  to  the  very 
limits  of  human  knowledge,  —  to  the  barriers 
beyond  which  our  minds  cannot  pass.  He 
must  fix  a  steady  attention  upon  ideas  abstract, 
shadowy,  and  inadequate.  Where  the  last  rays 
begin  to  be  lost  in  utter  darkness,  he  must  dis- 
tinguish in  the  doubtful  twilight  between  de- 
ceptive appearances  and  the  forms  of  things 
really  existing.  He  must  subject  to  a  strict 
scrutiny  words  and  expressions  which  often 
deceive  us,  and  often  mock  us  with  only  a  show 
of  meaning.  He  must  engage  in  difiicult  pro- 
cesses of  reasoning,  in  which  the  terms  of  lan- 
guage, divested  of  their  usual  associations, 
become  little  more  than  algebraic  symbols  ; 
and,  in  pursuing  these  processes,  he  must  pro- 


64  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

ceed  with  the  greatest  attention  and  accuracy, 
because  a  single  false  step  may  render  his  con- 
clusions altogether  erroneous. 

The  inquiries  to  which  we  are  led  by  the  ob- 
jections of  the  sceptic  are  curious,  and  in  some 
respects  important.  But  they  are  not  those  in 
which  a  man  of  sound  mind  will  habitually  de- 
light. He  will  pass  from  them  to  studies  more 
satisfactory,  and  which  have  a  more  direct  in- 
fluence upon  the  conduct  and  happiness  of  men, 
with  feelings  similar  to  those  of  the  voyager, 
who,  having  visited  the  wonderful  regions  of 
polar  solitude,  where  the  sun  dazzles  but  does 
not  fertilize,  is  returning  to  a  mild,  inhabited, 
and  cultivated  climate.  No  triumph  over  relig- 
ion can  be  achieved  by  metaphysical  scepticism 
till  it  has  first  undermined  the  foundations  of 
all  rational  belief  The  temple  in  which  we 
worship  is  placed  within  the  citadel  of  human 
reason ;  and,  before  it  can  be  approached  for 
the  purpose  of  destruction,  all  knowledge  not 
intuitive  must  have  been  surrendered.  He  who 
doubts  the  existence  of  God  has  left  himself  no 
truth,  dependent  on  moral  evidence,  which  he 
can  reasonably  believe. 

We  learn  the  character  of  God  by  a  wide  in- 
duction from  the  laws  of  his  moral  government, 
and  from  the  objects   and   phenomena  of  the 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  65 

physical  world.  Here,  then,  is  another  field  of 
study  opened  to  the  theologian.  We  are  sur- 
rounded by  an  unknown  and  immeasurable 
power,  which  is  every  moment  producing  mo- 
tion and  life,  and  manifesting  itself  by  efiects 
the  most  astonishing  and  admirable.  We  must 
study  the  character  of  this  power  in  its  works. 
We  must  borrow  aid  from  that  science  which 
has  "  wheeled  in  triumph  through  the  signs  of 
heaven."  We  must  enter  the  lecture-room  of 
the  anatomist,  and  learn  how  "  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  we  are  made."  And  we  must  fol- 
low the  student  of  nature  to  the  fields,  and 
woods,  and  waters,  to  rocks  and  mines,  and  in- 
quire of  the  objects  to  which  he  directs  us, 
what  they  can  teach  of  their  Maker.  These 
studies  are  to  be  pursued,  not  merely  as  fur- 
nishing materials  for  argument,  but  because 
they  awaken  and  render  vivid  our  feelings  of 
devotion.  In  contemplating  the  perfections  of 
God  without  reference  to  his  works,  they  pre- 
sent themselves  to  us  as  metaphysical  abstrac- 
tions, which  in  their  obscurity  and  vastness 
mock  our  comprehension.  But  when  we  turn 
to  his  works,  we  perceive  his  power,  wisdom, 
and  goodness  embodied,  as  it  were,  and  ren- 
dered visible. 

But  our  religious  faith  rests,  for  its  main  sup- 


66      EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

port,  on  what  we  believe  to  be  the  revelation  of 
God  through  Jesus  Christ.  What,  then,  is  the 
evidence  that  Jesus  Christ  was  indeed  the  mes- 
senger of  God  ]  This  inquiry  is  connected  with 
the  whole  history  of  God's  miraculous  dispensa- 
tions, and  will  lead  the  theologian  to  the  study 
of  all  the  evidence  relating  to  these  subjects. 

Upon  entering  on  this  study,  when  he  in- 
quires what  it  is  which  is  to  be  proved,  he  will 
find  that  a  mass  of  statements  and  proposi- 
tions, of  very  difierent  importance,  have  been 
blended  together;  and  his  first  object  must  be 
to  distinguish  and  separate  those,  the  truth  of 
which  it  is  indeed  essential  to  maintain.  His 
next  purpose  will  be  to  make  himself  acquaint- 
ed with  the  whole  evidence  by  which  these  es- 
sential truths  are  to  be  defended,  to  view  the 
subject  in  all  its  relations,  and  to  become  aware 
of  every  objection  and  difficulty.  His  faith  must 
not  be  the  off'spring  of  prejudice  and  ignorance, 
confident  only  because  it  has  not  examined,  and 
ready  to  think  an  insult  a  good  answer  to  an 
objection ;  nor  a  timid  and  doubtful  belief,  al- 
ways liable  to  be  startled  by  some  unexpected 
disclosure,  the  result  of  that  state  of  mind  in 
which  one  is  who  has  proceeded  in  his  inquiries 
only  so  far,  as  to  perceive  that  much  remains  to 
be  settled.     The  proof  of  the  miraculous  dis- 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  67 

pensations  of  God  consists  in  a  series  of  the 
most  remarkable  phenomena,  which,  if  we  re- 
ject the  belief  of  such  interpositions,  can  be  ac- 
counted for  by  no  other  causes ;  and  which  have 
marked  the  whole  history  of  man  with  a  track 
of  light,  like  that  of  the  rising  sun  on  the  ocean. 
In  making  himself  acquainted  with  the  evi- 
dences of  our  religion,  as  they  have  been  com- 
monly stated,  the  theological  student  will  per- 
ceive, that  it  is  only  a  portion  of  its  proof 
which  has  yet  been  collected  and  arranged ; 
and  that,  in  the  most  able  works  which  we 
have  on  the  subject,  is  to  be  found  only  an 
abridgment,  or  a  passing  notice,  of  many  impor- 
tant arguments,  while  others  are  wholly  omit- 
ted. In  order  to  feel  the  full  force  of  those 
arguments  to  which  his  attention  is  directly 
called,  he  must  apply  the  results  of  his  own  in- 
quiries to  the  statements  which  may  be  laid  be- 
fore him.  We  may  take,  as  an  example,  the 
evidence  for  our  religion  which  arises  from  the 
intrinsic  divinity  of  its  character.  In  order  to 
estimate  this  evidence  justly,  we  must  compare 
our  religion  with  the  systems  of  philosophy  and 
morals  by  which  it  was  preceded.  It  was  in- 
deed an  event  wholly  out  of  the  sphere  of  nat- 
ural causes,  that  one  who  had  never  entered  the 
schools  of  human  wisdom,  who  had   lived  all 


68  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

his  life  in  the  midst  of  the  gross  ignorance,  the 
inveterate  prejudices,  and  the  habitual  and  de- 
grading vices  of  Galilean  Jews,  surrounded  by  a 
people  scarcely,  if  at  all,  more  cultivated  and  in- 
tellectual than  those  who  now  occupy  the  same 
land,  —  that  such  a  one  should  make  known  a 
universal  religion,  the  most  pure,  the  most  holy, 
and  the  most  powerful  to  enlighten  and  bless 
mankind.  But  in  order  to  feel  in  all  its  force 
how  marvellous  a  thing  this  was,  we  must  know 
how  much,  or  rather  how  little,  had  been  pre- 
viously effected  by  the  efforts  of  the  wisest  and 
most  enlightened  men.  We  must  make  our- 
selves acquainted  with  the  moral  and  religious 
state  of  mankind,  which  preceded  and  was  con- 
temporary with  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
In  considering  the  external  evidences  of  our 
religion,  regarded  in  connection  with  what 
Christianity  really  is,  the  theologian,  if  he  be 
determined  to  view  the  subject  in  all  its  rela- 
tions, will  find  himself  conducted  into  the  most 
difficult  parts  of  ecclesiastical  history,  where 
there  are  guides  enough,  to  be  sure,  but  few 
whom  he  can  safely  trust ;  where  he  must  com- 
pare the  reports  of  one  with  those  of  another, 
and  examine  for  himself,  and  rely  upon  his  own 
judgment.  And  though  the  result  will  be,  I 
trust,  the  full  confirmation  of  his  faith,  yet  the 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  69 

opinions  with  which  he  concludes  may  not  be 
altogether  the  same  as  those  with  which  he 
commenced  his  inquiries. 

When  he  comes  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures, 
in  proportion  as  he  removes  all  the  accumulated 
rubbish  of  technical  theology,  under  which  their 
meaning  has  been  buried,  and  obtains  a  distinct 
view  of  it,  he  will  discern  new  and  very  striking 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  our  religion.     It  is  evi- 
dence, but  a  small  portion  of  which  has  yet  been 
distinctly  presented   by  any  writer.     It  arises 
from  the  agreement  of  the  New  Testament  with 
itself,  the  coincidence  and  correspondence  of  its 
different  parts,  and  its  agreement  with  all  our 
knowledge  respecting  the  state  of  things  which 
existed  during  the  time  of  the  first  preaching  of 
Christianity.     The  New  Testament  consists  of 
different  writings,  comprising  accounts  of  our 
Saviour's  ministry,  some  account  of  the  ministry 
of  his  Apostles,  particularly  of  that  of  St.  Paul, 
many  discourses  of  the  former,  and  various  let- 
ters written  by  the  latter  and  by  other  Apostles. 
The  whole  history  which  we  here  find  is  con- 
sistent with  itself;  and  the  discourses  and  let- 
ters are  consistent  with  the  history.     They  are 
so  connected  with  the  history,  that,  in  very  im- 
portant particulars,  they  are  liable  to  be  wholly 
misunderstood  without  such  a  careful  study  of 


70  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

it  as  may  enable  us  to  form  a  distinct  concep- 
tion of  the  particular  occasion  of  their  delivery 
or  composition.  These  discourses  and  writings 
reflect,  as  it  were,  the  ever- varying  circumstan- 
ces, which  marked  that  most  extraordinary  state 
of  things  produced  by  the  ministry  of  our  Sav- 
iour and  his  Apostles.  They  have  a  relation 
throughout  to  the  strong  prejudices,  the  un- 
founded and  extravagant  expectations,  the  nar- 
row conceptions,  the  limited  knowledge,  and 
the  violent  and  vacillating  passions,  of  those  to 
whom  they  were  addressed.  Nor  is  the  coinci- 
dence of  which  I  speak  confined  to  discourses 
and  writings ;  it  appears  also  in  what  was  done 
by  our  Saviour  and  his  Apostles.  It  is  a  cor- 
respondence of  their  words  and  actions  to  all 
that  we  know,  or  can  reasonably  infer,  respect- 
ing the  very  peculiar  circumstances  in  which 
they  acted  and  taught.  This  correspondence 
appears  throughout  the  New  Testament,  rami- 
fying into  numberless  particulars,  spreading 
everywhere,  and  binding  all  parts  together. 
As  we  pursue  our  inquiries,  it  assumes  at  last  a 
character  so  remarkable  and  decisive,  as  to  put 
out  of  question  the  supposition  of  fiction  in  the 
history,  or  forgery  in  the  writings.  No  artifice 
could  approach  toward  giving  such  a  perfect 
imitation  of  nature,  with  all  its  accidents,  and 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  71 

all  its  minute  and  latent  characteristics.  And 
why  has  not  this  internal  evidence  of  the  truth 
of  our  religion  been  more  regarded  ]  I  answer, 
because  the  Scriptures  have  been  for  the  most 
part  so  imperfectly  understood ;  because  their 
meaning  has  been  seen  blurred  and  distorted 
through  the  medium  of  gross  theological  errors. 
The  study  of  the  Bible,  and  particularly  of 
the  New  Testament,  is,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other,  the  peculiar  province  of  the  theologian. 
In  pursuing  this  study,  he  must  acquaint  him- 
self with  that  collection  of  facts  and  rules,  by 
the  application  of  which  the  original  text  of 
the  sacred  writings  is  recovered  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. He  must  be  master  of  the  languages  in 
which  they  are  written ;  an  acquaintance  with 
which  should  be  one  of  the  first,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be  one  of  the  last  objects  of  his  atten- 
tion. He  must  be,  in  the  most  comprehensive 
sense  of  the  word,  a  philologist.  The  meaning 
of  Scripture  is  controverted  in  every  part,  and 
he  must  therefore  be  acquainted  with  the  art  of 
interpreting  language,  an  art,  of  the  very  exist- 
ence of  which  many  of  those,  who  have  decided 
most  confidently  respecting  the  sense  of  the  sa- 
cred writings,  appear  to  have  been  wholly  igno- 
rant. To  this  end  he  must  study  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  language,  generally,  and  as 


72     EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

it  appears  in  different  particular  forms  in  which 
it  has  existed. 

The  interpretation  of  language  is  a  subject 
which  will  lead  him  to  one  of  the  most  curious 
and  important  branches  of  inquiry,  one  em- 
bracing the  whole  history  of  the  revolutions  and 
development  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  the 
changes  and  accidents  of  human  opinions  and 
sentiments.  In  tracing  this  history,  he  must 
learn  to  mark  with  a  practised  eye  the  varying 
composition  and  changeable  coloring  of  human 
ideas,  which  are  continually  forming  new  com- 
binations of  meaning,  while  the  old  disappear, 
to  be  expressed  by  the  same  unaltered  words 
while  the  same  language  remains  in  use,  or  by 
words  apparently  correspondent  in  the  langua- 
ges which  may  succeed  it.  Words,  as  well  as 
coins,  change  their  value  with  the  progress  of 
society.  By  studying  the  character  of  lan- 
guage, the  philologist  and  theologian  will  dis- 
cover its  intrinsic  ambiguity  and  imperfection. 
He  will  learn,  what  has  been  but  little  at- 
tended to,  that  words  regarded  in  themselves 
alone  are  often  inadequate  to  convey  any  one 
definite  meaning ;  and  that  the  meaning,  which 
the  words  themselves  leave  thus  loose  and  un- 
settled, is  to  be  fixed  and  defined  by  reference 
to  extrinsic  considerations.     He  will  in  conse- 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  73 

quence  perceive,  that  a  mere  critical  knowledge 
of  the  languages  in  which  the  Scriptures  are 
composed  (and  the  same  is  true  of  other  writ- 
ings) is  but  the  first  step  towards  their  expla- 
nation. In  order  to  know,  in  any  particular 
instance,  what  is  the  true  meaning  of  words,  it 
is  often  necessary  to  know  under  what  circum- 
stances and  relations  they  were  used  in  that 
particular  instance.  The  theologian,  therefore, 
will  proceed  to  collect  and  arrange  all  that  vari- 
ety of  facts  and  truths,  in  connection  with  which 
the  language  of  the  Scriptures  must  be  viewed, 
in  order  to  perceive  its  bearing  and  relations ; 
and  some  one  or  more  of  which  is  continually 
entering  as  a  principal  element  into  all  those 
reasonings  by  which  its  sense  is  determined. 
With  these  facts  and  truths  he  will  make  him- 
self familiar.  Without  previous  knowledge  of 
this  sort,  the  words  of  the  Scriptures,  or  of 
any  other  ancient  writing,  will  often  convey  as 
false  ideas  and  impressions  to  the  mind,  as  an 
historical  picture  might  give  to  one  wholly  ig- 
norant of  the  story  which  forms  its  subject. 

I  have  said  that  the  expositor  of  Scripture 
must  be  a  philologist  in  the  most  extensive 
sense  of  the  word.  In  order  to  this,  he  must 
have  the  feelings  and  imagination  of  a  poet. 
Without  these    poetry   cannot   be  understood. 


74    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

Its  interpreter  must  have  the  power  of  sym- 
pathizing with  him  by  whom  it  is  composed. 
The  images  and  emotions  of  the  writer  must 
excite  corresponding  images  and  emotions  in  his 
own  mind.  The  Old  Testament  is  full  of  po- 
etry ;  and,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  Oriental 
and  popular  style  which  prevails,  often  requires, 
no  less  than  poetry  itself,  an  acquaintance  with 
all  the  uses  of  language,  and  with  all  the  forms 
in  which  feeling,  passion,  and  imagination  ex- 
press themselves,  in  order  to  distinguish  and 
disengage  the  mere  literal  meaning  from  those 
images  and  ideas  with  which  it  is  associated. 

Another  part  of  the  business  of  a  theologian 
is  to  trace  the  history  of  our  religion,  and  its 
effects  on  the  condition  of  society.  In  other 
words,  he  must  be  familiar  with  ecclesiastical 
history.  In  this  study,  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting objects  of  attention  will  be  the  origin 
and  progress  of  those  errors,  which  have  cast 
their  shade  over  the  Christian  world,  and  inter- 
cepted the  influence  of  the  gospel.  He  will 
discover,  that  many  of  these  errors  belong  to  an 
earlier  age  than  Christianity  itself;  and  that 
their  sources  are  to  be  found  in  the  supersti- 
tions, and  still  more  in  the  philosophy,  which 
existed  before  our  religion  was  preached  to 
men.     The  converts  to  our  faith  did  not  yield 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.    75 

up  their  minds  to  its  reception  with  an  entire 
renunciation  of  every  former  belief  and  prepos- 
session. They  did  not  divest  themselves  of  all 
former  trains  of  thought  and  reasoning,  and 
all  former  imaginations  and  sentiments.  The 
light  which  spread  over  the  world  was  mingled 
with  the  darkness  which  had  before  prevailed ; 
and  God  did  not,  as  in  the  beginning,  divide  the 
light  from  the  darkness.  Men  received  much 
that  was  true,  but  they  also  retained  much 
that  was  false;  and  truth  and  falsehood  grew 
up  together,  and  constituted  the  religion  which 
was  professed.  The  past  and  present  errors  of 
Christians  are  many  of  them  to  be  traced  to  a 
heathen  origin,  and  especially  to  the  heathen 
philosophy. 

The  theologian,  therefore,  who,  in  studying 
the  evidences  of  our  religion,  had  before  been 
led  to  consider  the  previous  condition,  opin- 
ions, and  character  of  mankind,  will  find  him- 
self conducted  anew  to  the  same  subject  by 
a  different  route,  and  brought  to  view  it  under 
a  different  aspect.  The  study  of  ancient  phi- 
losophy lies  before  him.  He  must  make  him- 
self familiar  with  forms  of  error,  and  modes  of 
exhibiting  truth,  very  different  from  those  to 
which  he  has  been  accustomed.  He  must  be- 
come, as  it  were,  an  inquisitive  traveller  in  a 


76    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

strange  country,  among  men  who  use  a  new 
language ;  and  he  will  see  around  him  much, 
of  which  he  cannot  at  once  comprehend  the 
reason,  the  origin,  or  the  relations.  The  phi- 
losophy of  every  age  has  had  a  powerful  influ- 
ence upon  the  contemporary  forms  of  religion 
professed  among  Christians.  But  it  is  of  essen- 
tial importance  to  be  acquainted  with  that  phi- 
losophy which  prevailed  when  Christianity  was 
first  taught;  because  this,  as  I  have  said,  was 
the  parent  of  many  of  those  errors  which  still 
exist,  and  which  now,  made  hoary  by  time,  are 
regarded  with  a  veneration  to  which  they  are 
wholly  without  title. 

In  the  study  of  ecclesiastical  history,  in  order 
to  estimate  justly  the  facts  and  characters  which 
it  brings  before  us,  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
human  nature  is  required.  And  this  study,  in 
its  turn,  may  teach  us  more  of  the  human  char- 
acter than  perhaps  any  other.  It  will  show  us 
the  best  and  the  worst  passions  operated  upon 
by  the  strongest  motives.  It  will  teach  us  to 
think  at  once  more  highly  and  more  humbly  of 
man,  and  discover  to  us  all  his  strength,  all  his 
weakness,  and  all  his  inconsistency.  It  will 
show  us  the  strange  forms  in  which  his  virtues 
may  appear,  and  the  infamous  disguises  which 
his  vices  may  assume.     It  will   show  us  the 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  77 

most  remarkable  and  apparently  the  most  hete- 
rogeneous combinations  of  moral  and  intellect- 
ual qualities.  It  will  present  to  us,  in  every 
variety,  those  complex  characters  which  it  is  so 
difficult  to  estimate ;  because  they  exhibit  the 
worldly  and  selfish  passions  in  alliance  with 
religion,  and  it  is  hard  to  determine  to  what 
point  the  latter  is  debased,  or  how  far  the  for- 
mer may  be  modified  by  the  connection ;  to 
what  degree  self-deception  may  exist,  and  how 
far  it  is  to  be  admitted  as  an  excuse ;  or  how 
far  the  errors  and  vices  of  the  age  may  be 
pleaded  in  apology  for  those  of  the  individual. 
It  will  teach  us,  that  even  powerful  minds  may 
be  paralyzed  by  the  touch  of  superstition  ;  that 
there  is  no  depth  of  debasement  to  which  the 
human  understanding  may  not  be  reduced ;  and 
that  there  is  nothing  so  unmeaning,  so  false,  so 
shocking,  or  so  self-contradictory,  that  it  may 
not  be  received  for  divine  truth. 

But  one  of  the  most  grateful  studies  of  the 
theologian  is  to  trace  the  real  influence  of  the 
true  principles  of  Christianity.  He  will  rejoice 
to  observe  how  much  they  have  done  to  raise 
the  character  of  man,  and  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  society.  Going  back  into  past  ages, 
and  becoming,  as  it  were,  a  citizen  of  Athens 
or  of  Rome,  making  himself  familiar  with  all 

7* 


78    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

that  can  be  known  of  their  manners,  morals, 
religion,  and  political  institutions,  entering 
their  schools  to  listen  to  the  teaching  of  their 
philosophers,  and  mingling  on  their  festival 
days  with  the  crowd  celebrating  their  rites  of 
worship,  he  will  perceive  how  much  the  imagi- 
nation has  disguised  their  moral  depravity,  their 
ignorance,  and  their  miseries ;  and  will  return 
to  offer  up  thanks  to  God,  that  he  was  born 
among  Christians. 

The  proper  office  of  religious  belief  is  the  for- 
mation of  character.  Our  faith  teaches  us,  that 
we  shall  be  happy  or  miserable  in  a  future  life, 
as  we  have  done  good,  or  done  evil,  in  the  pres- 
ent. But  what  is  good '?  What  is  virtue  1 
These  are  inquiries  which  the  theologian  has 
to  answer.  It  may  be  said,  that,  as  far  as  re- 
gards practice,  they  are  easily  settled.  When 
the  question  is  merely,  whether  some  particular 
action  be  lawful  or  not,  it  is  easily  settled,  in  a 
majority  of  cases  of  common  occurrence,  by  one 
who  will  not  let  the  inferior  part  of  his  nature 
triumph  over  his  judgment.  But  different  na- 
tions, different  sects  of  Christians,  and  different 
individuals  have  held  opposite  opinions  upon 
many  subjects  of  morals  of  the  greatest  practi- 
cal importance.  You  think  religious  persecu- 
tion a  profanation  of  the  name  of  Christianity, 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  79 

and  an  outrage  upon  the  first  principles  of  nat- 
ural justice.  But  a  little  more  than  a  century 
ago,  it  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  first  duties  of 
a  Christian  community,  and  there  were  very  few 
Christian  communities  which  did  not  act  in  con- 
formity to  this  error.  Most  Christians  now 
have,  or  profess  to  have,  a  decided  opinion  and 
strong  feeling  against  it ;  but,  if  any  one  be  in 
the  habit  of  ascribing  a  high  value  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  Church,  it  may  startle  him  to 
recollect,  that  he  has  the  authority  of  Christen- 
dom against  him  from  the  fifth  century  to  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth. 

There  have  been  other  gross  and  disastrous 
mistakes  concerning  morals  in  the  Christian 
world.  Very  erroneous,  and  consequently  very 
mischievous,  opinions  have  prevailed  concern- 
ing the  fundamental  questions.  What  consti- 
tutes the  Christian  character  1  and  How  must 
it  be  formed  ]  These  mistakes  imply  a  radical 
misconception  of  what  constitutes  moral  excel- 
lence ;  for  it  is  in  the  attainment  of  moral  ex- 
cellence that  the  Christian  character  consists. 
They  have  shown  themselves  in  all  those  imagi- 
nary substitutes  for  personal  goodness,  the  efii- 
cacy  of  which  has  been  so  eagerly  believed. 
The  superstitions  of  Heathenism  in  India  have 
hardly  produced  devotees  more  wanting  in  the 


80    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

qualities  that  entitle  men  to  respect  or  love,  or 
with  more  characteristics  that  excite  disgust  or 
pity,  than  some  of  those  who  have  been  ven- 
erated as  models  of  Christian  excellence  in  dif- 
ferent ages  and  among  different  sects  of  the 
Christian  world. 

Christianity  has  been  represented  as  lending 
the  authority  of  its  sanctions  to  errors  the  most 
alien  from  it,  by  requiring  men  to  submit  their 
consciences  and  their  reason  to  ecclesiastical 
rule,  to  the  decisions  of  a  church.  It  has  been 
represented  as  in  alliance  with  arbitrary  power, 
and  as  enjoining  as  a  duty  passive  obedience  to 
all  rulers,  especially  hereditary  rulers,  whatever 
may  be  their  character  and  acts.  The  latter 
doctrine  was  insisted  upon  but  a  century  ago 
by  men  of  more  than  common  ability.  The 
former  doctrine  survives  in  its  original  vigor. 
There  are  at  the  present  day  other  questions 
agitated,  of  great  practical  importance.  Some 
Christians,  entitled  to  much  respect  for  their 
virtues,  deny  the  right  of  defensive  war.  There 
are,  to  give  a  very  different  example.  Christians 
who  allow  a  license  that  appears  to  others  in  a 
high  degree  criminal,  maintaining  the  lawful- 
ness of  professing  to  believe  articles  of  faith 
which  they  do  not  believe.  It  may  seem 
strange  to  mention  this  as  an  unsettled  point 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.    81 

of  morality ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
matter  is  still  controverted  in  the  minds  of 
many  individuals,  who  commonly  arrive  at 
what  we  should  consider  a  wrong  decision. 

But  the  questions  as  to  what  we  ought  not 
to  do  are  of  much  easier  solution  than  those 
which  relate  to  what  we  ought  to  do.  The  na- 
ture and  extent  of  the  duties  of  active  benevo- 
lence, of  those  duties  which  require  something 
to  be  done,  in  contradistinction  from  those 
which  require  something  to  be  avoided,  are 
very  imperfectly  understood.  Different  men 
have  different  notions  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
estimate  very  differently  the  requisitions  of 
duty ;  and  they  pursue  in  consequence  very  dif- 
ferent modes  of  life.  Perhaps  the  selfishness 
that  appears  in  not  acting  leaves  as  much 
misery  to  exist  in  the  world  as  aggressive  self- 
ishness creates. 

As  to  the  principles  of  morals,  there  is  no 
greater  agreement  than  with  regard  to  the  prac- 
tice. There  are  moralists,  who  contend  that 
some  one  particular  motive,  which  they  select 
from  all  others,  is  in  every  case  necessary  to 
constitute  an  'action  virtuous.  There  are  oth- 
ers, who  allow  that  there  are  many  motives 
which  all  partake  of  the  nature  of  virtue. 
Those,   too,   who    admit  but    one   differ   most 


82    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

widely  from  each  other  as  to  the  character  of 
this  one ;  some,  for  instance,  resolving  all  vir- 
tue into  refined  selfishness,  and  others  into  per- 
fect benevolence ;  —  some  contending  that  all 
things  are  to  be  done  for  the  glory  of  God,  in 
some  literal  sense  of  those  terms,  not  in  the 
popular  sense  in  which  they  are  used  by  the 
Apostle ;  and  others,  that  we  are  to  be  guided 
solely  by  that  intuitive  perception  of  right  and 
wrong  which  they  ascribe  to  conscience,  consid- 
ered as  a  distinct  faculty  of  the  mind.  With 
different  opinions  respecting  morals,  men  may 
practise  in  a  considerable  degree  alike ;  but  it 
would  be  idle  to  contend,  that  their  opinions 
have  no  influence  on  their  practice,  and  none 
on  their  character  and  happiness.  From  the 
inseparable  connection  between  theology  and 
morals,  it  is  the  business  of  the  theologian  to 
study  the  principles  of  the  latter  science,  and  to 
trace  out  their  proper  bearing  on  the  conduct 
of  men.  Morality  is  not  to  be  determined  by 
our  first  impressions ;  nor  is  it  a  matter  of  in- 
tuitive judgment.  We  cannot  be  sure  that  all 
which  we  have  been  taught  concerning  it  is 
true.  It  is  not,  as  has  been  said,  a  science 
which  admits  of  no  discoveries.  Morality  is 
now  better  understood  than  in  former  times, 
and  it  will,  we  may  believe,  be  better  under- 
stood by  our  posterity  than  it  is  by  us. 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  83 

The  ultimate  objects  of  a  theologian  should 
be  to  improve  his  own  character,  and  the  moral 
condition  of  his  fellow-men.  But,  in  order  to 
effect  the  latter  purpose,  it  is  necessary  to  un- 
derstand the  human  character.  The  compli- 
cated machinery  of  the  mind  is  easily  deranged ; 
and  no  small  mischief  has  been  often  produced 
by  the  ill-directed  attempts  of  the  ignorant  and 
violent  to  regulate  and  put* it  in  motion.  You 
have  undertaken  to  be  a  guide  to  the  erring, 
and  an  instructor  of  the  ignorant.  You  have 
undertaken  to  lead  men  in  the  path  of  virtue 
and  holiness.  Take  care  that  you  do  not  repel 
them  from  it,  or  lead  them  astray.  It  is  not  so 
simple  a  work  as  one  may  imagine.  A  sen- 
tence may  undo  the  effect  of  a  sermon.  It  is 
the  office  of  a  theologian  to  administer  the  med- 
icine of  the  mind ;  and,  in  order  to  do  this,  he 
should  be  acquainted  with  its  general  constitu- 
tion, and  the  diseases  to  which  it  is  liable. 

And  how  is  this  necessary  knowledge  of  hu- 
man nature  to  be  acquired  *?  In  the  first  place, 
by  distinctly  perceiving  the  truth,  that  it  is  a 
kind  of  knowledge  which  may  and  ought  to  be 
acquired,  —  that  it  does  not  come  merely  by 
chance  or  by  intuition.  Every  one  judges  of 
the  characters  of  those  around  him ;  but  how 
few  judge  correctly.     In  no  science  is  it  so  ne- 


84    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

cessary,  as  in  the  science  of  human  nature,  for 
the  learner  to  be  first  convinced  of  his  igno- 
rance. In  order  to  remove  this  ignorance,  we 
must  study  our  own  hearts.  We  must  be  in 
the  habit  of  analyzing  those  aggregates  of  mo- 
tives from  which  we  usually  act,  and  of  giving 
to  every  individual  motive  its  true  name.  We 
must  observe  how  we  ourselves  are  affected  by 
the  actions  and  words  of  others,  how  often  the 
effect  produced  is  different  from  that  intended, 
and  we  must  remark  why  it  is  so.  We  must 
study  human  life  as  it  lies  around  us,  present- 
ing phenomena  not  less  various,  nor  less  diffi- 
cult of  explanation,  than  those  of  the  material 
world.  We  must  remark  the  influence  of  those 
circumstances,  that  operate  so  powerfully  to 
mould  the  character  in  its  formation,  and  to 
produce  those  subsequent  changes  which  often 
render  it,  in  advanced  life,  not  less  different 
from  what  it  was  in  youth,  than  the  counte- 
nance itself;  so  that,  like  that,  it  retains  only 
something  of  the  outline  of  its  former  features. 
We  must  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  principle 
of  association,  that  great  law  of  the  mind, 
which  it  is  so  important  to  regulate;  which, 
when  not  properly  regulated,  operates  with  blind 
agency,  binding  together  thoughts  and  senti- 
ments and  feelings  in  mischievous  connection. 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  85 

We  must  observe  how  often  this  law  is  directed 
to  the  production  of  evil,  by  the  want  of  consid- 
eration, or  judgment,  or  temper,  in  those  who 
undertake  the  business  of  moral  instruction. 
We  must  study  the  volume  of  human  history 
with  its  numberless  pages,  and  learn  the  nature 
of  man  from  his  past  actions  and  works.  We 
must  be  acquainted  with  those  productions  in 
which  the  human  character  is  justly  exhibited 
by  the  great  masters  of  the  art,  and  in  which 
poetry  and  eloquence  give  a  vivid  expression  of 
human  feelings  and  sentiments.  We  must 
study  the  writings,  in  which  a  mild  philosophy 
has  shed  a  steady  illumination  upon  the  mind 
and  heart  of  man ;  and  those  also,  in  which,  as 
in  the  histories  of  Tacitus,  flashes  are,  every 
now  and  then,  breaking  forth,  which  send  light 
into  the  recesses  where  the  viler  passions  hide 
themselves.  The  knowledge  of  human  nature 
is  a  science  ;  and  if  in  this,  as  in  other  branches 
of  knowledge,  some  have  a  natural  aptitude  for 
its  acquisition  more  than  others,  yet  our  ac- 
quirements will  depend  much  upon  our  exer- 
tions. It  is  a  science,  too,  which  has  shared 
with  every  other  in  the  progress  of  improve- 
ment. Our  acquaintance  with  the  principles 
and  motives-  which  influence  the  mind  and 
heart  of  man  is   more   extensive   and  correct 

8 


86  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

than  the  knowledge  of  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded us. 

It  remains  to  consider  what  preparatory  stud- 
ies are  required  for  the  attainment  of  theologi- 
cal knowledge.  A  theologian  must  be  familiar 
with  the  ancient  languages.  But  this  is  not  all. 
As  respects  the  modern  languages,  we  must 
not  confine  ourselves  to  the  sources  of  informa- 
tion which  may  be  found  in  our  own.  There 
are  many  works  of  much  value  to  a  theologian 
in  the  French  and  German.  In  Germany,  for 
the  last  forty  or  fifty  years,  the  science  of  the- 
ology has  been  more  cultivated  than  in  any 
other  country  ;  though  certainly  not  altogether 
with  the  happiest  results.  Nobody,  I  trust, 
will  imagine,  that  I  admire  the  licentious,  and, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  most  extravagant  and  un- 
tenable speculations  of  some  of  the  modem 
German  theologians.  In  reading  their  works, 
I  find  what  I  cannot  but  regard  as  theories  and 
arguments  of  impalpable  inanity ;  I  seem,  like 
^neas  when  entering  the  confines  of  the  dead, 
to  be  passing  through  a  region  of  monstrous 
shadows,  and  to  be,  like  him,  pursuing  a  jour- 
ney, 

*'  Quale  per  incertam  lunam,  sub  luce  maligna, 
Est  iter  in  sylvis." 

Some  of  these  theologians,  who  have  attained 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  87 

a  certain  degree  of  celebrity  out  of  their  own 
country,  are,  I  think,  not  entitled  to  any  kind 
of  respect.  To  others  of  them  one  may  be  dis- 
posed to  apply  the  character  which  Thirlby,  in 
the  celebrated  dedication  of  his  edition  of  Justin 
Martyr,  gives  of  Isaac  Vossius  :  —  "  He  had 
great  learning,  superior  genius,  and  judgment 
too,  which,  if  not  very  great,  was  enough  and 
more  than  enough  for  one,  who,  unless  I  am 
entirely  deceived,  cared  but  little  about  discov- 
ering the  truth  upon  any  subject.  He  made  it 
his  object  to  seek  for  and  invent  new,  out-of-the- 
way,  and  wonderful  opinions  in  criticism,  in 
philosophy,  and  in  theology.  Whether  they 
were  true  or  not,  he  left  to  be  examined  by 
those  who  might  think  themselves  interested  in 
the  matter."  *  But  this  character  is  far  from 
being  applicable  to  the  whole  body  of  modern 
German  theologians.  There  are  many  who  are 
not  entitled  to  the  praise,  and  some  who  are 
not  obnoxious  to  the  censure.     Some  have  exe- 


*  "  Erant  in  eo  homine  multae  litersB,  ingenium  excellens,  judi- 
cium etiam,  si  non  maximum,  at  tantum  quantum  ei  satis  superque 
fuit,  qui,  nisi  omnia  me  fallunt,  quid  in  quavis  re  verum  asset,  le- 
viter  curavit  perspicere.  Satis  iiabuit  nova,  devia,  mirabilia,  in 
critica,  in  philosophia,  in  ttieologia,  quserere  et  excogitare  :  vera 
anne  falsa  essent,  id  vero  aliis  exquirendum  reliquit,  qui  sua  istuc 
interesse  existimarent." 


88    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

cuted  laborious  works  of  great  value ;  and  oth- 
ers have  written  with  sobriety  and  good  sense, 
as  well  as  learning  and  ingenuity.  As  re- 
spects the  mass  of  those  works  with  which  we 
can  become  acquainted  only  through  the  Ger- 
man language,  their  value,  without  doubt,  has 
been  considerably  overrated;  nor  would  it  be 
safe  to  recommend  the  indiscriminate  study  of 
them  to  one  apt  to  estimate  the  truth  of  opin- 
ions by  their  novelty.  But  still  the  value  of 
many  of  these  works  is  such,  as  to  render  a 
knowledge  of  the  language  very  desirable  to 
the  theological  student,  and  necessary  to  a  con- 
summate theologian. 

In  enumerating  the  intellectual  qualifications 
necessary,  I  have  perhaps  convinced  you,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  be  a  theologian.  In  the 
highest  and  most  comprehensive  sense  of  the 
word  it  may  be  so.  But  perhaps  I  shall  have 
done  some  service,  if  I  have  convinced  you,  that 
it  is  no  easy  thing  to  acquire  those  qualifica- 
tions, which  a  theologian,  in  the  more  popular 
sense  of  the  word,  may  be  fairly  expected  to 
possess.  More,  a  great  deal  more,  is  necessary 
than  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  some  system 
of  technical  divinity,  and  with  the  arguments 
by  which  this  is  usually  defended.  Much  more 
is  required  than  that  knowledge  which  a  man 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.    89 

may  collect  from  reading  a  few  books  in  our 
own  language,  and  those  perhaps  the  books  of 
a  particular  sect.  Much  more  than  a  familiar- 
ity with  those  metaphysical  quibbles,  which 
show  how  much  morbid  ingenuity  may  remain, 
while  common  sense  is  entirely  prostrated ;  and 
which,  at  the  same  time,  like  words  of  magic, 
darken  the  whole  creation  of  God  to  those  by 
whom  they  are  pronounced.  Much  more  than 
to  be  able  to  quote  a  mass  of  texts  indiscrimi- 
nately from  different  books  of  the  Bible,  and  to 
interpret  them  conformably  to  the  use  of  words 
in  that  theological  dialect  which  we  may  have 
learnt  in  childhood.  And  much  more  is  re- 
quired than  a  facility  in  running  through  all 
those  errors  which  our  church,  or  our  party, 
may  have  faithfully  preserved,  since  the  time 
when  the  science,  of  which  I  speak,  lay  in  a 
state  of  the  lowest  debasement.  True  theology 
has  little  to  do  with  any  of  these  acquirements. 
It  is  a  science  of  vast  extent  and  dignity,  em- 
bracing all  the  knowledge  which  directly  or 
remotely  concerns  man  as  an  immortal  being. 
We  believe,  indeed,  that  its  most  important 
truths,  and  the  main  arguments  by  which  these 
are  defended,  may  be  made  intelligible  to  all ; 
that  in  its  last  results  it  coincides  with  the  first 
judgments  of  unprejudiced  reason  ;  and  that  the 


90    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

man  of  plain  good-sense,  who  exercises  his  un- 
derstanding and  thinks  for  himself,  and  the 
profound  and  intelligent  scholar,  will  find  that 
there  are  no  essential  points  of  difference  in 
their  fundamental  opinions.  We  may  all  ar- 
rive at  last  upon  common  ground,  where  the 
highest  and  humblest  may  meet  together. 

But  if  any  one  refuse  to  submit  to  the  decis- 
ions of  our  natural  reason,  and  the  dictates  of 
our  natural  feelings ;  if  he  come  to  us,  teaching 
what  he  calls  incomprehensible  propositions, 
and  truths  above  reason ;  if  he  maintain  doc- 
trines abhorrent  to  all  our  best  sentiments  re- 
specting God  and  his  moral  government ;  and 
if  he  require  us  to  believe  the  system  which  he 
has  received;  we  have  a  right  to  ask  in  re- 
turn. What  are  his  qualifications  to  discuss 
these  subjects  1  How  extensively  has  he  exam- 
ined, how  profoundly  has  he  thought  upon  their 
nature  and  relations '?  How  thoroughly  has  he 
acquired  all  that  preparatory  knowledge  which 
is  necessary  in  their  investigation]  What  is 
the  compass  of  his  studies,  and  what  the  reach 
of  his  faculties,  that  he  thinks  his  judgments  of 
so  much  value,  and  his  censures  of  so  much 
authority  ?  Has  he  in  fact  gone  through  that 
long  course  of  discipline,  necessary  to  enable 
him  to  decide  questions  of  science  and  criticism,, 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  91 

as  they  arise  in  the  study  of  theology  1  We 
shall  find,  in  many  cases,  that  our  new  teacher 
is  just  as  well  qualified  for  the  work  which  he 
has  undertaken,  as  one  with,  or  without,  a  little 
elementary  knowledge  of  mathematics  would 
be  qualified  to  decide  on  the  truth  of  the  dem- 
onstrations of  Newton  or  La  Place.  Is  theol- 
ogy, the  most  profound  and  comprehensive  of 
sciences,  the  only  one  in  which  ignorant  pre- 
sumption may  be  allowed  to  dogmatize"?  It 
has  done  this,  and  it  has  done  much  more.  It 
has  oppressed  and  persecuted.  Hence  it  is,  that 
the  progress  of  truth  has  been  so  slow  and  em- 
barrassed. The  operation  of  vulgar  prejudices 
and  passions  has  restrained  the  intellect  of  the 
wisest,  and  checked  the  courage  of  the  boldest ; 
and  the  science  has  in  consequence  not  yet  at- 
tained that  rank  and  estimation  which  belong 
to  it.  It  has  been  degraded  by  the  irruptions 
of  ignorance  and  barbarism ;  its  provinces  have 
been  seized  upon,  and  the  rightful  possessors  of 
the  soil  driven  away. 

Something,  then,  has  been  effected,  if  any  just 
views  have  been  given  you  of  the  importance 
and  dignity  of  this  science.  It  is,  in  truth,  the 
highest  philosophy,  including  every  thing  most 
interesting  in  speculation  and  practice.  In  pro- 
portion as  it  is  better  understood  and  taught, 


92    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

the  minds  of  men  will  be  more  enlightened,  and 
their  moral  principles  and  feelings  elevated  and 
improved.  And  there  is  hope  that  it  will  be 
better  understood  and  taught.  The  obstacles 
which  have  opposed  its  progress  are  continually 
giving  way.  The  human  understanding  will 
not  much  longer  submit  to  such  reasoning  on 
the  subjects  of  theology,  as  on  every  other  sub- 
ject it  has  learned  to  treat  with  contempt.  The 
prejudice,  before  which  the  world  bowed  but  yes- 
terday, will  to-morrow  find  "  none  so  poor  to  do 
it  reverence."  Let  us  consider  how  much  the 
cause  of  true  reHgion,  and  virtue,  and  happiness, 
for  they  are  all  inseparably  connected,  has  been 
advanced  during  the  last  two  centuries.  Let  us 
consider  how  much  may  be  gained  in  the  ages 
to  come,  if  we  are  but  faithful  to  our  posterity, 
and  they  are  but  faithful  to  themselves.  It  is 
only  two  centuries  since  Grotius  lived ;  since 
the  time  when  he  was  struggling  against  igno- 
rance, and  persecution,  and  "oppositions  of 
science  falsely  so  called,"  to  guide  his  contem- 
poraries in  the  way  to  truth.  His  contempora- 
ries, in  return,  attempted  to  confine  and  extin- 
guish, within  the  walls  of  a  prison,  that  light 
which  was  to  spread  itself  through  the  world. 
They  drove  him  from  his  native  land ;  and, 
when  the  shades  of  death  were  about  to  close 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.    93 

upon  him,  he  might  have  looked  round  and 
seen  not  a  single  country  free  from  the  oppres- 
sion of  ecclesiastical  tyranny ;  and  only  one  in 
which  any  religion  unmixed  with  the  grossest 
error  enjoyed  even  a  doubtful  toleration ;  only 
one  where  a  few  harassed  individuals  had  found 
a  temporary  refuge,  from  which  they  were  just 
about  to  be  driven.*  What  deep  and  holy  joy 
would  have  filled  the  mind  of  that  great  man,  if 
a  prophetic  vision  could  have  been  accorded  to 
him  of  what  we  now  behold  around  us  ;  if,  amid 
his  labors,  disappointments,  and  sufferings,  he 
could  have  been  assured  that  he  had  not  la- 
bored and  suffered  in  vain ;  if  he  could  have 
foreseen  that  in  this  country,  —  which  was  then 
just  appearing  within  the  political  horizon,  but 
which  even  then  had  attracted  his  attention, 
and  been  one  object  of  his  extensive  studies,  — 
a  vast  empire  was  to  be  established,  throughout 
which  the  principles  of  religious  liberty  should 
be  fully  recognized,  and  in  which  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  community  should  comprehend 
the  essential  character,  and  feel  the  true  influ- 
ence, of  our  religion.  But  there  is  a  promise  of 
fairer  and  happier  days  to  the  whole  civilized 
world.     The  light  of  Christianity  has  been  ob- 

*  I  refer  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Unitarians  from  Poland  in  1661. 


94  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

scured,  and  men  have  been  travelling  in  dark- 
ness. But  the  thick  vapors  vrhich  concealed 
earth  and  heaven  are  breaking  away ;  and  we 
begin  to  perceive  the  beautiful  prospect  which 
lies  before  us,  and  the  glittering  of  spires  and 
pinnacles  in  the  distance. 

In  enumerating  the  intellectual  acquisitions 
necessary  to  constitute  a  consummate  theolo- 
gian, one  may  naturally  feel  some  apprehension 
like  that  which  Cicero  expresses,  when  about 
to  speak  of  those  requisite  in  an  orator :  "  Ve- 
reor  ne  tardem  studia  multorum,  qui  despera- 
tione  debilitati,  experiri  nolint,  quod  se  assequi 
posse  diffidant."  I  may,  however,  say  as  he 
does :  "  Sed  par  est  omnes  omnia  experiri,  qui 
res  magnas,  et  magno  opere  expetendas,  concu- 
piverunt.  Quod  si  quem  aut  natura  sua,  aut 
ilia  praestantis  ingenii  vis,  forte  deficiet,  aut  mi- 
nus instructus  erit  magnarum  artium  discipli- 
nis;  teneat  tamen  eum  cursum,  quem  poterit. 
Prima  enim  sequentem,  honestum  est  in  secun- 
dis  tertiisque  consistere."  All  the  knowledge 
which  the  theological  student  acquires  will  be 
valuable.  Whatever  faculties  he  cultivates  may 
be  turned  to  account  It  would  be  a  poor  rea- 
son to  neglect  to  do  any  thing,  because  there  is 
so  much  which  may  be  done  to  advantage. 

It  is  to  our  clergy  that  we  must  look  for  a 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.     95 

body  of  learned  theologians.  It  is  through 
them  principally,  that  the  benefits  of  this  sci- 
ence are  to  be  derived  to  the  community.  But, 
in  order  that  they  may  become  qualified  for 
their  ofifice,  the  means  of  education  must  be  af- 
forded them ;  and  leisure  must  be  afibrded  them 
to  pursue  their  studies,  when  the  work  of  edu- 
cation is  finished.  The  standard  of  preaching 
is  very  high  with  us ;  and  it  certainly  is  not 
desirable  that  it  should  be  lowered.  But,  this 
being  the  case,  the  mere  weekly  round  of  a 
clergyman's  labors  has  been  found  in  some  sit- 
uations too  severe,  and  even  destructive  of 
health  and  life.  We  have  witnessed  the  spec- 
tacle of  men  of  the  finest  genius  perishing  un- 
der the  slow  torture  of  unremitted  mental  exer- 
tion.  Something  has  been  done  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  this  calamity ;  and  means  might 
be  easily  devised,  —  but  this  is  not  the  place  to 
point  them  out,  —  to  lessen  the  pressure  of  du- 
ties which  is  still  too  great.  It  is  with  theol- 
ogy, as  with  every  other  department  of  knowl- 
edge and  literature;  if  we  would  have  them 
flourish  among  us,  we  must  show  that  we  esti- 
mate their  value,  and  the  worth  of  those  ser- 
vices which  are  devoted  to  their  cultivation. 
We  must  not  be  "  slowly  wise,"  nor  "  meanly 
just."     In  conferring   public  rewards,  there  is 


96  EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

nothing  more  opposite  to  true  wisdom,  than  a 
calculating  spirit  of  parsimony.  Our  literary- 
men  have  been  pursuing  their  labors  under  pe- 
culiar disadvantages  ;  and  we  must  be  ready  to 
aiford  every  facility  and  every  encouragement  to 
their  exertions ;  to  extend  a  steady  patronage  to 
our  literary  institutions,  to  increase  our  public 
libraries,  and  to  enlarge  all  our  means  of  knowl- 
edge. We  must  be  generous,  and  considerate, 
and  kind ;  ready  to  praise  and  approve  where 
praise  and  approbation  are  merited ;  liberal  in 
our  rewards,  and  reasonable  in  our  demands. 

If  we  would  not  have  our  country,  with  all 
its  immeasurable  resources,  become  a  sort  of 
barbaric  empire  ;  if  we  would  not  have  a  half- 
civilized  population  spread  over  our  soil,  igno- 
rant of  all  that  adorns,  and  ennobles,  and  pu- 
rifies the  character  of  man ;  if  we  would  not  be 
overrun  with  every  form  of  fanaticism  aud 
folly;  if  we  desire  that  our  intellectual  and 
moral  rank  should  keep  pace  with  our  unceas- 
ing enlargement  as  a  nation ;  if  we  desire  that 
just  notions  of  religion,  and  correct  principles 
of  duty,  should  manifest  their  influence,  and 
convey  their  blessings  through  the  community ; 
if  we  love  our  native  land,  and  rejoice  in  its 
honor,  and  should  be  humbled  in  its  degrada- 
tion ;    we  must  recollect  that  good  and  evil  are 


EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY.  97 

before  us,  and  that  it  is  for  us  to  choose  which 
we  will ;  but  that  the  one  is  not  to  be  secured, 
nor  the  other  avoided,  by  accident.  AVhat  w^e 
may  become  will  depend  upon  ourselves ;  not 
upon  what  we  may  wish,  but  upon  what  we 
may  do.  The  character  of  its  intellectual  men 
gives  its  character  to  a  nation.  That  literature 
which  is  without  morals  and  without  Christian 
faith,  like  the  literature  of  France  during  the 
age  of  Voltaire,  is  one  of  the  worst  evils  to 
which  God  ever  abandons  a  people.  That  lit- 
erature which  throughout  regards  men  as  his 
creatures,  and  as  immortal  beings,  is  one  of 
the  greatest  blessings  which  he  ever  confers. 
As  for  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  studies  of 
which  I  have  been  speaking,  they  have  motives 
enough,  in  whatever  situation  they  may  be,  to 
call  forth  all  their  efforts.  But  in  our  country, 
where  so  much  is  at  stake  ;  where  the  last  ex- 
periment seems  to  be  making,  to  determine 
what  man  may  become  when  placed  in  the 
most  favorable  circumstances;  w^here  every 
thing  is  in  a  forming  state,  and  so  much  de- 
pends upon  the  impressions  now  received,  and 
the  direction  now  given,  the  motives  of  which 
I  speak  acquire  an  overwhelming  force.  What 
must  be  the  responsibility  of  those  who  are  en- 
gaged in  studies,  which  have  so  direct  an  influ- 


98    EXTENT  AND  RELATIONS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

ence  upon  the  character  and  condition  of  men ! 
And  what  consciousness  of  desert  can  be  more 
honorable  or  more  animating  than  his,  who 
feels  that  he  is  directing  all  his  eiForts,  that  he 
is  devoting  the  whole  energy  of  his  mind,  that 
he  is  pouring  himself  out  like  water  to  swell 
the  tide  which  is  to  bear  his  country  on  to  hap- 
piness and  glory ! 


THOUGHTS 


ON 


TEUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION, 


The  following  tract  was  first  published  in  the  "  Christian 
Disciple  "  for  September  and  October,  1820. 


THOUGHTS 


ON 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION 


Considered  merely  in  relation  to  this  world, 
there  is  no  subject  on  which  it  is  more  impor- 
tant for  us  to  hold  correct  opinions,  than  on  the 
subject  of  religion.  There  are  no  questions  of 
such  interest  to  us,  as  those  which  it  proposes 
to  answer.  There  is  no  department  of  knowl- 
edge, in  which  ignorance  and  error  so  essen- 
tially affect  the  character  and  condition  of  indi- 
viduals and  of  society.  Determine  the  relative 
degrees  of  virtue  and  happiness  in  different 
communities,  and  you  will  have  determined  the 
relative  degrees  in  which  the  influence  of  cor- 
rect religious  principle  is  felt;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  false  notions  of  religion,  ignorance, 
and  superstition  will  be  found  in  nearly  the 
same  proportions  as  vice  and  misery. 

There  is  abundant  proof  of  the  fact  just  stat- 
ed.    We  find  evidence  of  it  in  the  condition  of 

9* 


102  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

the  most  polished  heathen  nations,  the  Greeks 
and  Romans.  There  is  indeed  a  deceptive  glare 
cast  around  them  by  the  splendors  of  art  and 
genius.  We  are  liable  to  be  deluded,  likewise, 
by  a  vulgar,  school-boy  admiration  of  virtues, 
which  never  existed  but  in  fancy;  and  of  which 
scarce  any  other  show  of  evidence  is  to  be 
found,  but  some  high-sounding  epithets,  used 
by  such  writers  as  Livy  in  compliment  to  their 
countrymen,  and  interpreted  at  the  present  day 
in  conformity  to  our  own  notions  of  moral  ex- 
cellence, and  not  those  of  a  heathen.  But,  put- 
ting aside  these  causes  of  error,  if  we  examine 
into  the  real  condition  of  those  ancient  nations, 
we  shall  find  melancholy  and  decisive  evidence 
of  the  truth  maintained.  It  will  gather  round 
us  from  every  side.  Their  religion,  erroneous 
and  corrupting  as  it  was,  will  be  found  a  true 
index  of  the  virtue  and  happiness  which  exist- 
ed ;  and  the  want  of  some  higher  principle  of 
moral  conduct,  than  it  was  capable  of  furnish- 
ing, will  appear  in  the  examples  of  profligacy, 
injustice,  and  cruelty,  which  will  rise  in  dark 
masses  to  our  view ;  in  the  general  want  of  per- 
sonal security  and  peace ;  in  the  absence  of  do- 
mestic comfort  and  those  charities  which  make 
life  dear  to  us ;  and  in  the  loosely  compacted 
machinery  and  irregular  movements  of  every 
organized  society. 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  103 

We  may  look  to  the  dark  ages ;  and  compare 
the  state  of  religion,  though  that  religion  was 
called  Christianity,  with  the  state  of  morals, 
safety,  and  happiness.  We  may  look  for  fur- 
ther evidence  of  the  truth  maintained  to  Spain 
and  Italy,  or  to  Turkey  and  Hindostan.  We 
may  consider  the  tremendous  lesson  which 
France  has  been  giving  to  mankind.  We  may 
look  where  we  will,  and  we  shall  everywhere 
perceive  the  same  general  correspondence  be- 
tween the  notions,  true  or  false,  which  prevail 
concerning  religion,  and  the  condition,  good  or 
bad,  of  those  by  whom  they  are  held. 

But  we  need  not  recur  to  the  observation  of 
what  has  been,  in  order  to  prove  that  the  direct 
influence  of  religion,  properly  understood,  is  in 
the  highest  degree  beneficial.  We  have  only 
to  consider  what  must  be  the  operation  of  the 
truths  which  it  makes  known.  For  the  happi- 
ness and  consolation  of  man,  it  teaches  him  that 
he  is  the  creature  and  care  of  infinite  goodness. 
To  support  and  animate  him  in  all  virtue,  it  is 
continually  inculcating  the  truth,  that  God  has 
made  him  the  arbiter  of  his  own  happiness  or 
misery ;  and  that  virtue  and  happiness  are  the 
same.  It  makes  him  know  and  feel,  that  the 
more  good  he  communicates,  the  more  he  en- 
joys ;    and   that   benevolence,   generosity,    and 


104  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

self-devotion  are  his  interest.  It  places  dis- 
tinctly before  him  the  fact,  that  there  are  pleas- 
ures of  two  kinds ;  some,  which  of  themselves, 
by  their  mere  excess  and  repetition,  exhaust 
the  power  of  enjoyment,  and  make  the  soul 
"  embody  and  embrute,"  leaving  it  at  last  with- 
out any  sensibility  but  to  pain;  and  others, 
which  invigorate  the  faculties,  which  enlarge 
our  capacities  for  happiness,  whose  enjoyment 
is  but  a  step  to  higher  enjoyment ;  and  this  to 
continue  for  ever.  The  influence  of  such  relig- 
ion on  the  intellectual  is  not  less  than  upon  the 
moral  part  of  man.  By  preserving  the  mind 
pure  from  vice,  it  preserves  its  faculties  in  free 
and  healthy  exercise.  The  truths  which  it 
teaches  have  a  bearing  on  almost  every  other 
interesting  speculation.  The  moral  taste  which 
it  cultivates  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
taste  for  every  other  sort  of  beauty;  and  the 
enlargement  and  elevation  produced  by  the  ha- 
bitual contemplation  of  the  infinite,  the  invis- 
ible, and  the  remote,  will  manifest  themselves 
in  all  the  operations  and  purposes  of  the  mind. 
Nor  are  we  to  estimate  the  power  of  religion 
in  a  community  merely  by  its  direct  influence. 
It  affects  those  who  think  least  of  its  value.  It 
affects  them  through  public  sentiment,  by  rais- 
ing the  standard  of  morals,  by  rendering  a  cer- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  105 

tain  decorum  of  manners  necessary  to  any  de- 
gree of  estimation,  by  the  direct  action  of  sym- 
pathy with  those  around  them,  and  by  the  con- 
tinual operation  of  institutions,  and  modes  of 
thinking  and  acting,  in  which  the  truths  of  re- 
ligion are  recognized. 

But  we  must  not  expect  a  beneficial  influ- 
ence from  every  thing  which  is  called  religion. 
We  must  attend  to  something  more  than  the 
name ;  for  poison  as  well  as  food  has  been 
called  by  this  name.  Religion,  considered  in 
the  abstract,  is  a  system  of  truths,  and  operates 
on  the  mind  through  faith  in  these  truths. 
But  because  these  truths  are  of  a  nature  to 
yield  the  most  blessed  fruits,  it  does  not  follow, 
that  a  system  of  opinions  inconsistent  with,  or 
contradictory  to  them,  will  produce  the  same 
effects,  because  men  have  given  the  same  name 
to  both.  If  religion  be  of  the  highest  value, 
because  it  affords  us  as  clear  notions  of  the  Di- 
vinity as  we  are  capable  of  receiving,  it  does 
not  follow  that  a  system  is  of  any  value,  which 
confounds  our  notions  of  God  by  unintelligible 
doctrines  respecting  his  nature.  If  religion  be 
adapted  to  produce  the  most  excellent  virtues, 
by  holding  forth  the  most  powerful  motives  and 
sanctions,  and  requiring  that  these  should  be 
regarded    in   every   moral    action,   we   cannot 


106  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

therefore  infer,  that  the  same  effect  is  to  be  ex- 
pected from  a  religion  which  traffics  in  par- 
dons for  sin ;  or  from  a  religion  which  teaches 
men  that  the  main  thing  is  to  perform  certain 
rites  and  to  regard  certain  observances;  or 
from  a  religion  which  insists  on  the  reception 
of  a  system  of  doctrines  as  the  sure  and  only 
passport  to  eternal  happiness;  and  still  less 
from  one  which  brings  virtue  into  contrast 
with  some  other  requisition  or  characteristic, 
and  makes  light  of  the  former,  and  regards  it 
even  as  a  subject  of  contempt  and  jealousy,  in 
comparison  with  the  latter,  —  denominating 
all  human  excellence  by  some  such  title  as 
the  filthy  rags  of  self-righteousness.  If  it  be 
the  genuine  operation  of  true  religion  to  pro- 
duce a  constant  effort  after  moral  perfection, 
because  it  teaches  that  good  and  evil  are  be- 
fore us,  and  that  it  is  for  us  to  choose  and 
attain  which  we  will ;  we  cannot  conclude 
that  this  will  be  the  operation  of  a  religion, 
which  inculcates,  as  a  fundamental  truth,  the 
doctrine,  that  we  have  no  moral  power,  that 
our  condition  will  not  at  all  depend  on  any 
thing  which  we  may  do  ;  but  that  our  eternal 
happiness  or  misery  has  been  determined  by  the 
pleasure  of  another  being,  who  has  issued  his 
irreversible   decrees  without  reference   to   any 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  107 

qualities  which  he  may  see  in  us.  True  re- 
ligion is  an  inestimable  blessing;  because  it 
teaches  that  God  is  the  everlasting  Friend  and 
Father  of  his  creatures,  a  God  of  infinite  good- 
ness. But  what  shall  we  say  of  a  religion 
which  teaches  that  he  has  formed  men  so,  that 
they  are  by  nature  wholly  inclined  to  all  moral 
evil ;  that  he  has  determined  in  consequence  to 
inflict  upon  the  greater  part  of  our  race  the 
most  terrible  punishments ;  and  that,  unless  he 
has  seen  fit  to  place  us  among  the  small  num- 
ber of  those  whom  he  has  chosen  out  of  the 
common  ruin,  he  will  be  our  eternal  enemy 
and  infinite  tormentor ;  that,  having  hated  us 
from  our  birth,  he  will  continue  to  exercise 
upon  us  for  ever  his  unrelenting  and  omnipo- 
tent hatred !  Whatever  may  be  the  worth  of 
true  religion,  it  surely  does  not  follow,  that  this 
system  of  blasphemy  must  be  also  of  great  val- 
ue, and  very  beneficial  in  its  efiects.  Yet  he 
must  be  a  very  ignorant,  or  a  very  bold  man, 
who  will  afiirm,  that  the  doctrines  last  stated 
have  not  been  taught,  and  very  extensively  too, 
as  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity. 

With  us  Christians,  religion  is  identified  with 
Christianity.  We  receive  the  truths  which  it 
teaches,  not  because  we  are  able  to  establish 
them  by  the  deductions  of  our  reason,  but  be- 


108  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

cause  we  believe  them  to  have  been  taught  by 
God ;  because  we  think  that  the  uncertain  de- 
ductions of  reason  have  been  confirmed  by  the 
highest  possible  authority.  But  what  is  Chris- 
tianity ?  A  very  different  thing,  unquestion- 
ably, from  what  has  been  the  professed  religion 
of  far  the  greater  part  of  Christians.  The  prop- 
osition may  appear  startling  at  first  sight ;  but 
consider  the  state  of  Christendom  from  the 
fourth  century  to  the  sixteenth,  and  ask  your- 
self, how  great  was  the  resemblance  between 
the  system  of  doctrines  which  prevailed  during 
this  period,  and  the  system  of  truths  which  was 
taught  by  Jesus  Christ  '^  When  you  are  satis- 
fied with  regard  to  the  faith  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  you  may  then  examine  the  scheme  of 
doctrines  developed  in  the  Institutes  of  Cal- 
vin; or  the  same  scheme,  as  it  appears  di- 
gested in  the  works  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly. If  any  one,  wholly  unacquainted  with  our 
religion,  were  told,  that  this  was  Christianity ; 
and  that  the  system  taught  in  these  books  was 
to  be  found  in  another  collection  of  books, 
called  the  New  Testament,  I  believe  his  sur- 
prise would  be  uncontrollable  and  unimagin- 
able, when  he  came  to  read  the  New  Testament 
itself,  and  to  understand  what  is  actually  taught 
there. 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  109 

If  what  we  regard  as  Christianity,  then,  be 
true  and  valuable,  what  are  we  to  think  of  such 
systems  as  those  just  mentioned  1  Why  do  we 
value  Christianity  ]  Because  it  gives  us  assur- 
ance of  certain  truths,  which  we  believe  to  be 
of  infinite  importance.  These  truths  constitute 
our  religion.  The  character  which  we  attach  to 
them  is  not  to  be  transferred  to  any  thing  dif- 
ferent, and  still  less  to  any  thing  contradictory. 
So  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  these  truths,  and 
these  alone,  have  operated  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  men.  Whatever  is  opposed  to  them, 
whether  it  be  taught  under  the  name  of  Chris- 
tianity or  not,  is  opposed  to  Christianity.  Just 
in  proportion  as  we  regard  the  latter  as  valu- 
able, shall  we  regard  the  former  as  pernicious. 
Just  in  proportion  as  we  are  desirous  of  pro- 
moting the  influence  of  true  religion,  shall  we 
be  desirous  of  removing  all  those  false  doc- 
trines by  which  its  influence  is  counteracted 
and  destroyed  ;  and  counteracted  and  destroyed 
the  more  effectually,  because  they  have  assumed 
its  name  and  authority. 

There  cannot  be  different  systems  of  equal 
value.  There  are  not  two  opposite  kinds  of 
truth  in  religion.  Nothing  can  be  more  irra- 
tional than  a  strong  attachment  to  any  partic- 
ular mode  of  faith,  or  form  of  worship,  accom- 

10 


110  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

panied  with  indiiFerence  about  its  correctness, 
and  indisposition  to  inquire  into  its  real  char- 
acter. Nothing  can  be  more  loose  or  incon- 
sistent than  his  opinions,  who  thinks  religion  a 
great  good,  but  does  not  think  it  worth  the  while 
to  ascertain  what  particular  doctrines  religion 
teaches.  If  certain  truths  are  of  infinite  im- 
portance, the  errors  opposed  to  them  are  in  the 
highest  degree  pernicious;  and  he  who  main- 
tains the  latter,  as  if  they  were  of  the  same 
nature  with  the  former,  is  committing  a  very 
serious  mistake  indeed. 

It  is  true,  that  the  worst  errors  respecting 
Christianity  do  not  always  produce  their  natu- 
ral effects.  Perhaps  they  never  have  produced 
their  full  and  complete  effects.  The  essential 
truths  of  our  religion  appear  so  distinctly  and  so 
prominently  in  the  revelation  which  God  has 
given  us,  they  are  so  conformable  to  our  rea- 
son, and  so  agreeable  to  our  natural  sentiments, 
that  they  have  never  been  wholly  obscured  and 
forgotten  among  Christians.  Their  operation, 
therefore,  has  been  counteracted,  but  not  en- 
tirely destroyed.  Opposite  truths  and  errors 
have  existed  in  the  same  mind,  and  mutually 
controlled  each  other's  influence.  In  many 
minds,  these  errors  have  existed  merely  in  the 
form  of  speculation ;    and  have  been  met  and 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  Ill 

overborne,  whenever  they  tended  to  any  prac- 
tical result,  by  natural  good  sense,  correct 
moral  principles,  and  sincere  piety.  The  prac- 
tical religion  of  men  is  often  a  very  dif- 
ferent thing  from  their  professed  religion;  or 
from  that  contained  in  the  creeds  of  the  sect  to 
which  they  consider  themselves  as  belonging. 
Nor  may  we  ever  expect  to  see  the  whole  oper- 
ation and  perfect  results  of  any  false  opinions, 
when  those  by  whom  they  are  maintained  live 
intermixed  with  others,  holding  opposite  doc- 
trines, whose  numbers  and  character  are  such 
as  to  command  respect.  It  is  the  tendency  of 
the  opposite  opinions  of  various  men  to  act 
upon  and  modify  each  other.  A  man  without 
any  religion  will  be  a  very  different  person,  if 
he  live  in  the  midst  of  a  religious  community, 
from  what  he  would  have  been  in  a  society  of 
men  equally  destitute  of  religious  principle 
with  himself;  and  the  case  is  similar  with  him 
whose  religion  is  erroneous.  The  characters  of 
men  are,  without  doubt,  affected  by  many  other 
causes  beside  the  errors  of  the  religious  creed 
which  they  may  profess. 

We  believe,  and  we  rejoice  to  believe,  that 
there  have  been  mpn  of  excellent  virtue  in  every 
different  faith.  But  in  estimating  the  virtue, 
or  rather  the  merit,  of  individuals,  we  are  con- 


112  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

tinually  making  allowance  for  their  difference 
of  faith  ;  for  the  different  degrees  in  which  they 
have  attained  a  knowledge  of  true  religion,  and 
of  the  character  of  its  requirements.  We  do 
not  expect  certain  virtues  from  men  under  the 
influence  of  certain  errors.  In  giving  the  trib- 
ute of  our  admiration  to  the  moral  excellence 
of  Socrates  or  of  Cicero,  we  have  to  remember 
that  Socrates  and  Cicero  were  heathens.  In 
going  back  a  century  or  two,  if  we  would  look 
without  horror  upon  some  who  have  passed 
even  for  saints,  we  must  recollect,  that  they  be- 
lieved religious  persecution  to  be  a  duty.  We 
are  continually  applying  the  same  principle, 
often  perhaps  unconsciously,  in  judging  of  the 
characters  of  those  whom  we  regard  as  holding 
great  errors  ;  and  frequently  where  such  errors 
are  entertained,  though  we  may  find  much  to 
praise,  we  find  also,  if  not  much  to  censure,  at 
least  much  to  regret. 

There  have  been  excellent  men,  whose  belief 
on  the  most  important  subjects  has  been  very 
erroneous.  But  if  any  one  should  infer  from 
this  fact,  that  all  different  faiths  are  equally 
adapted  to  produce  such  men,  and  that  there  is 
no  ground,  therefore,  in  their  practical  effects, 
for  preferring  one  to  another,  he  would  reason 
in  the  same  manner,  as  if,  having  observed  that 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  113 

some  men  retain  their  health  and  live  long  in 
insalubrious  situations  and  unhealthy  employ- 
ments, he  should  conclude  that  any  one  climate 
or  mode  of  life  is  as  favorable  to  health  as  an- 
other. The  constitution  of  man,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  experience,  would  be  overlooked  in  the 
latter  inference  no  more  than  in  the  former. 
When  it  can  be  shown  that  men's  opinions  do 
not  influence  their  conduct ;  that  there  is  an 
entire  divorce  between  their  intellect  and  their 
principles  of  action ;  that  men  do  not  perform 
certain  things,  because  they  believe  it  to  be  their 
interest  or  duty  to  perform  them  ;  and  that  re- 
ligion, which  has  been  regarded  as  so  active  a 
principle  in  the  production  of  both  good  and 
evil,  is  really  nothing  more  than  an  inert  sub- 
ject of  speculation  ;  then  it  may  be  inferred,  not 
indeed  that  it  is  wholly  unimportant  whether 
our  religion  be  true  or  false,  but  that  it  is  of 
little  more  importance  than  whether  we  believe 
the  system  of  Newton  or  of  Ptolemy  respecting 
the  material  universe. 

To  false  religion  we  are  indebted  for  perse- 
cutors, zealots,  and  bigots ;  and  perhaps  hu- 
man depravity  has  assumed  no  form  more 
odious  than  that  in  which  it  has  appeared  in 
such  men.  Persecution  is  passing  away,  we 
may  trust,  for  ever ;  and  torture  will  no  more 

10* 


114  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

be  inflicted,  and  murder  no  more  committed, 
under  pretence  of  extending  the  spirit  and  in- 
fluence of  Christianity.  But  the  temper  which 
produced  it  still  remains ;  its  parent  bigotry- 
is  still  in  existence ;  and  what  is  there  more 
adapted  to  excite  disgust,  than  the  disposi- 
tion, the  feelings,  the  motives,  the  kind  of  in- 
tellect and  degree  of  knowledge,  discovered  by 
some  of  those,  who  pretend  to  be  the  sole  de- 
fenders and  patrons  of  religious  truth  in  this 
unhappy  world,  and  the  true  and  exclusive 
heirs  of  all  the  mercy  of  God  ]  It  is  a  partic- 
ular misfortune,  that,  where  gross  errors  in  re- 
ligion prevail,  the  vices  of  which  I  speak  show 
themselves  especially  in  the  clergy;  and  that 
we  find  them  ignorant,  narrow-minded,  pre- 
sumptuous, and,  as  far  as  they  have  it  in  their 
power,  oppressive  and  injurious.  The  disgust 
which  this  character,  in  those  who  appear  as 
ministers  of  religion,  naturally  produces,  is 
often  transferred  to  Christianity  itself  It 
ought  to  be  associated  only  with  that  form  of 
religion  by  which  those  vices  are  occasioned. 
But  such  mistakes  are  continually  made,  be- 
cause men  do  not  discriminate  between  the 
different  systems  of  faith  which  have  passed 
under  the  name  of  Christianity,  nor  recognize 
the  very  different  effects  which  they  are  adapt- 
ed to  produce. 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  115 

It  is  indeed  questionable,  whether  the  direct 
influence  of  the  errors  which  have  been  con- 
nected with  Christianity  upon  those  by  whom 
they  are  held,  is  equally  mischievous  with  their 
indirect  consequences.  They  are,  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  among  the  most  operative  causes  of 
unbelief;  and  of  what  probably  is  much  more 
common,  and  what  we  have  so  much  reason  to 
lament,  indifference  and  scepticism  in  respect  to 
religion.  A  system  of  doctrines  is  presented  to 
men,  at  which  their  minds  revolt ;  and  they  are 
told  that  this  is  Christianity.  A  gospel  is  pro- 
posed to  them,  whose  first  aspect  belies  its 
name.  If  they  are  prevented  from  rejecting 
our  religion  altogether,  by  perceiving  something 
of  that  character  of  divinity  which  belongs  to 
it,  and  cannot  be  wholly  obscured ;  by  the  au- 
thority of  so  many  excellent  men  who  have 
regarded  it  as  the  foundation  of  their  hopes  ; 
and  by  some  knowledge  of  the  evidences  of  its 
truth ;  yet  such  misrepresentations  will  not  be 
without  their  effect.  Men  will  in  consequence 
of  them  regard  religion  as  a  subject  of  habit- 
ual doubt  and  perplexity,  an  irksome  topic  of 
contemplation,  one  from  which  their  minds  will 
be  always  ready  to  escape.  It  will  thus  be  pre- 
vented from  mingling  with  their  thoughts;  it 
will  not  direct  their  common  purposes ;    it  will 


116      TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

not  influence  their  affections ;  it  will  not  estab- 
lish its  authority  in  their  hearts.  Such,  indeed, 
will  often  be  the  case,  even  when,  for  want  of 
knowing  any  thing  better,  they  have  at  last 
brought  themselves  to  assent  to  that  creed  in 
which  alone  religion  has  been  distinctly  pre- 
sented to  their  minds. 

The  extravagant  errors  which  have  been 
forced  into  an  unnatural  union  with  Christian- 
ity may  be  traced  back  to  ages,  from  which  we 
consent  to  receive  no  other  opinions.  They 
derived  their  origin  from  men,  whose  specula- 
tions on  every  other  subject  would  command 
at  the  present  day  but  little  deference.  He 
would  be  regarded  only  with  wonder  or  ridi- 
cule, who  should  think  it  worth  while  to  quote 
Athanasius,  or  Augustine,  or  Calvin,  or  Turre- 
tin,  as  an  authority  upon  any  topic  except  the 
peculiar  theological  doctrines  which  they  main- 
tained. The  mysteries  of  the  later  Platonists, 
with  the  exception  of  the  mystery  of  the  Trin- 
ity, are  at  the  present  day  treated  with  not 
much  respect ;  and,  though  the  schoolmen  have 
been  our  masters  in  matters  of  religion,  we 
think  it  little  worth  while  to  study  their  writ- 
ings, and  forget  to  whom  we  have  been  indebt- 
ed. Thus  it  is,  that  religious  doctrines,  which 
had  their  birth  in  ages  of  ignorance,  of  false 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  117 

principles,  and  false  reasoning,  still  remain  in 
full  vigor ;  though  all  the  rest  of  the  brother- 
hood of  errors,  of  which  they  made  a  part,  have 
long  since  perished.  They  remain,  disconnect- 
ed from  all  the  modes  of  conception  and  habits 
of  mind,  among  which  they  had  their  origin. 
They  remain,  standing  insulated  and  unsup- 
ported, except  by  their  connection  with  each 
other.  They  are  at  variance  with  all  the 
knowledge,  and  all  the  opinions  and  sentiments, 
of  our  age  upon  every  related  subject. 

If  we  should  take  up  any  one  of  the  standard 
authors  upon  these  subjects,  any  one  of  those, 
whose  reputation  is  highest,  as  a  writer  on  nat- 
ural religion,  on  morals,  on  the  science  of  the 
human  mind,  or  as  skilful  in  the  development 
of  the  human  character,  and,  in  the  midst  of 
our  reading,  should  chance  to  recollect  some  of 
the  doctrines  of  technical  theology,  we  should 
at  once  perceive  how  strangely  they  come 
athwart  the  whole  current  of  our  thoughts, 
and  how  irreconcilable  they  are  with  all  that 
is  best  established  in  human  knowledge.  We 
are  transferred  from  the  region  of  all  certain  or 
probable  truth,  from  all  those  topics  of  contem- 
plation among  which  the  mind  loves  to  dwell, 
into  quite  a  new  field  of  speculation,  very  bar- 
ren and  hideous ;  lying,  if  I  may  so  speak,  out 


118  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

of  the  limits  of  the  habitable  world.  Let  any 
one,  while  reading  the  fine  arguments  and 
beautiful  illustrations  of  Paley  respecting  the 
goodness  of  God,  bring  to  mind  that  doctrine 
which  teaches  that  this  is  a  ruined  world,  that 
far  the  greater  portion  of  men  are  doomed 
from  their  birth  to  inevitable  woe,  that  there  is 
"  a  curse  of  God  upon  the  creatures  for  our 
sake  " ;  and  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  privi- 
leged few,  who  do  not  contribute  much  to 
brighten  the  prospect,  we  see  nothing  about  us 
but  sin  and  its  punishments ;  —  in  the  shock, 
which  this  horrible  doctrine  will  give  to  all  the 
affections  and  feelings  that  fill  his  mind,  he 
may  perceive  one  proof,  among  many,  of  the 
direct  contrariety,  of  which  I  speak,  between 
what  reason  and  revelation  teach,  and  what  has 
been  taught  by  false  theology ;  between  the  tra- 
ditionary doctrines  of  the  latter,  and  the  best 
conclusions  of  enlightened  philosophy. 

But  we  find  that  there  are  many  claiming  to 
be  exclusively  Christians,  who  insist  that  doc- 
trines, such  as  those  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
constitute  the  essential  truths  and  character- 
istic features  of  our  religion ;  and  who  raise  a 
passionate  outcry  against  all  who  endeavour  to 
vindicate  Christianity  from  this  imputation. 
The   creeds    of   every   established   church    in 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  119 

Christendom  teach  such  doctrines.  The  whole 
body  of  the  clergy  in  every  such  church  may 
be  divided  into  three  classes,  —  those  who 
heartily  believe  the  doctrines  of  their  creed; 
the  smallest  number,  I  suspect,  by  far ;  —  those 
who,  by  repeated  efforts,  and  by  carefully  limit- 
ing their  inquiries,  have  succeeded  in  silencing 
their  own  doubts,  and  in  persuading  them- 
selves that  these  doctrines  admit  of  a  plausible 
defence ;  —  and,  in  the  last  place,  a  very  consid- 
erable number  indeed,  and  perhaps  the  most 
injurious  to  the  interests  of  religion,  those  who 
give  their  solemn  assent  to  the  truth  of  doc- 
trines which  they  do  not  believe.  And  what  is 
the  consequence  of  all  this  1 

Let  us  suppose  an  acute  and  intelligent  man, 
occupied  either  in*  the  affairs  of  the  w^orld,  in 
professional  studies,  or  literary  pursuits,  and 
whose  habits  of  life  have  in  consequence  been 
such  as  to  leave  him  little  leisure  to  make  him- 
self acquainted  with  the  science  of  theology. 
Let  us  suppose,  that,  from  the  circumstances  of 
his  situation,  some  one  of  those  systems  of  er- 
ror, which  have  assumed  the  name  of  Chris- 
tianity, should  have  been  continually  presented 
to  him  as  Christianity  itself  How  is  he  to  de- 
termine that  this  pretension  is  not  founded  in 
truth  ]     How  is  he  to  know,  that  what  is  pub- 


120  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

licly  announced  as  the  religion  of  Christ,  and 
what  those  around  him,  who  profess  to  be  best 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  affirm  to  be  the 
religion  of  Christ,  does  not  in  fact  deserve  the 
name?  By  such  a  man,  the  popular  system 
would  for  the  most  part  hardly  be  thought  to 
deserve  serious  attention ;  especially  if  he 
should  find,  that  it  was  in  fact  disbelieved  by  a 
considerable  portion  of  those  whose  business  it 
is  to  teach  it.  If  he  should  happen  to  take  up 
some  one  of  those  books  which  contain  an  ex- 
position and  defence  of  any  of  the  principal 
forms  of  error  which  our  rehgion  has  been 
made  to  assume,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  with 
what  contempt  and  weariness,  with  what  won- 
der and  disgust,  he  would  turn  over  the  pages. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  how  surprisingly 
triffing  and  inane  many  of  those  statements, 
which  we  theologians  are  accustomed  by  cour- 
tesy to  call  arguments,  would  appear  to  one  fa- 
miliar with  common  modes  of  discussion,  and 
with  what  may  be  called  the  practical  reason- 
ing of  men. 

Religion  is  not  respected,  because  it  is  not 
understood ;  because  a  low,  earth-born  rival  has 
assumed  the  name  and  place  of  that  principle 
whose  origin  is  from  heaven.  Can  we  think  it 
wonderful,  that  there  should  be  many  in  every 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.      121 

Christian  country,  who  come  to  feel  little  re- 
spect for  a  subject  which  has  never  been  fairly 
presented  to  their  minds,  which  has  always 
been  connected  with  associations  that  are  offen- 
sive or  degrading,  and  about  which  those  have 
often  written  and  talked  the  most,  who  have 
said  nothing  but  what  tended  to  misrepresent 
it  and  expose  it  to  contempt?  We  see  every- 
where the  manifest  effects  of  the  state  of  things 
to  which  I  have  adverted.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  consider  the  condition  of  Catholic  countries, 
where  the  monstrous  corruptions  which  have 
been  connected  with  Christianity  have  left  it 
scarcely  any  disciples,  except  among  the  lower 
and  more  ignorant  classes  of  society.  We  may 
see  enough  of  the  disastrous  consequences  of 
error  in  Protestant  countries,  in  our  own  neigh- 
borhood, among  those  whom  we  meet  in  the 
common  intercourse  of  life.  By  the  causes 
which  have  been  mentioned,  we  may  account 
in  a  great  measure  for  the  phenomenon,  that, 
of  the  most  eminent  literary  men  of  Scotland 
for  the  last  sixty  or  seventy  years,  so  many  have 
been  open  enemies,  or  very  doubtful  friends,  of 
Christianity.  Turn  over  the  pages  of  the  most 
popular  and  able  literary  journal  of  our  times, 
which  has  exercised  so  much  influence  upon 
the  minds  of.  thousands  of  readers,  and  than 
11 


122      TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

which  few  publications  have  tended  more  to 
mark  and  distinguish  the  present  age ;  —  you 
cannot  but  be  struck,  I  do  not  say  with  the  in- 
fidelity which  has  occasionally  appeared  in  a 
few  articles,  but  with  a  characteristic  far  more 
deserving  of  notice,  and  suggesting  thoughts 
more  serious ;  —  it  is  the  general  exclusion  of 
every  religious  topic,  and  of  nearly  all  direct 
reference  to  Christianity.  You  would  produce 
scarcely  a  perceptible  change  in  the  character 
of  the  work  by  striking  out  every  thing  which 
implies  that  such  a  religion  as  Christianity 
exists  in  the  world.  Whatever  relates  to  the 
highest  interests  and  noblest  speculations  of 
man  is  excluded  ;  as  if  these  subjects  lay  out 
of  the  sphere  of  all  true  and  useful  knowledge  ; 
nay,  as  if  there  would  be  something  of  imperti- 
nence and  folly  in  introducing  topics,  borrowed 
from  religion,  into  writings  really  intended  to 
influence  the  sentiments  and  conduct  of  the 
more  intelligent  classes  of  society.  Whether  a 
man  believe  the  truths  of  religion  or  not,  he 
must  have  an  intellect  singularly  constituted,  if 
he  affect  to  despise  them.  But  the  doctrines  of 
false  theology  have  long  outlived  the  time  when 
they  could  command  any  respect,  except  from 
those  whose  minds  have  been  disciplined  to 
their  reception ;  and,  if  we  will  insist  on  mis- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  123 

taking  the  latter  for  the  former,  it  is  not 
strange  that  such  effects  should  be  produced  as 
we  see  existing. 

But  the  subject  presents  itself  under  a  still 
more  gloomy  aspect.  What  must  be  the  effect 
of  any  of  those  systems  of  faith  which  have  as- 
sumed the  name  of  orthodoxy,  when  urged  up- 
on the  reception  of  the  young]  What  must 
be  the  effect,  when  such  a  system,  with  its  hid- 
eous features,  and  squalid  with  all  the  bar- 
barism of  a  rude  and  ignorant  age,  is  obtruded 
upon  a  mind  of  warm  affections,  of  unperverted 
and  undisciplined  feelings,  of  quick  sensibility, 
and  impatient,  hasty,  and  petulant  in  its  judg- 
ments 1  Take  such  a  young  man,  and  persuade 
him,  if  you  can,  to  read  through  the  standards 
of  doctrine  which  your  church  has  sanctioned ; 
no  matter  whether  that  church  be  episcopal  or 
presbyterian,  and  no  matter  whether  your  stand- 
ard be  the  Westminster  Catechisms  and  Con- 
fession, or  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  Tell  him 
that  this  is  your  religion,  and  must  be  his. 
Lay  before  him  your  aggregate  of  unintelligible 
doctrines  concerning  God,  and  of  doctrines 
which  are  but  too  intelligible  concerning  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  man ;  and  tell  him 
that  the  creed  which  you  put  into  his  hands 
contains  a  full  exposition  of  all  that  is  consola- 


124  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

tory  and  delightful  and  lovely  and  glorious  in 
religion.  If  you  can  bring  him  to  contemplate 
and  understand  what  you  have  laid  before  him, 
have  you  any  doubt  with  what  aversion  he  will 
regard  your  religion  1 

The  different  systems  of  religious  error  which 
have  prevailed  among  Christians  have  usually 
been  employed  as  very  efficacious  instruments 
in  effecting  the  worldly  and  criminal  purposes 
of  those  by  whom  they  have  been  most  zeal- 
ously supported.  They  have  been  made  to 
pander  to  the  ambition  and  vices  of  unholy 
men,  pretending  to  be  ministers  of  'God  and 
Christ.  They  have  been  brought  into  intimate 
union  with  corrupt  civil  institutions ;  and,  when 
guarded  by  the  sword  of  the  law,  they  have  lib- 
erally repaid  the  support  which  they  have  re- 
ceived, by  employing  in  their  turn  the  terrors 
and  artifices  of  superstition  to  humble  the 
minds  of  men.  True  religion  can  be  the  min- 
ister of  nothing  but  good.  But  false  religion 
may  be  made  an  agent  in  the  production  of  al- 
most any  sort  of  evil.  It  is  of  its  very  essence 
to  misdirect  and  misemploy  the  sanctions  which 
it  holds  forth. 

In  proof  of  this,  it  is  not  necessary  to  look 
back  to  the  period,  when  a  despotism  the  most 
odious  and  degrading  was  established  over  Eu- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.      125 

rope  under  the  name  of  the  Church  of  Christ ; 
and  when  the  pretended  authority  of  our  relig- 
ion was  made  a  shelter  for  rank  and  foul  in- 
iquity. It  is  better  to  regard  the  more  mod- 
erate evils  of  our  own  time,  and  to  take  exam- 
ples, which,  if  not  quite  so  impressive,  have  a 
more  practical  bearing.  In  every  country  of 
Europe,  there  are  without  doubt  many,  who 
regard  religion  merely  as  a  part  of  the  political 
machinery  of  the  state,  and  a  powerful  instru- 
ment in  preserving  and  strengthening  the  exist- 
ing distinctions  of  society;  who,  on  the  one 
side,  view  its  establishments  as  a  means  of  ex- 
erting power  and  patronage,  and,  on  the  other, 
as  a  source  from  which  rank  and  wealth  may 
be  derived.  The  style  and  temper  in  which  the 
national  religion  is  defended  often  borrow  their 
character  from  the  kind  of  estimation  in  which 
it  is  held.  There  is  a  worldly,  political,  inter- 
ested zeal  shown  in  its  defence,  betraying  an 
origin  very  different  from  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  a  zeal  for  their  own  profit,  and 
not  for  the  happiness  of  their  fellow-creatures, 
which  engages  men  in  its  support.  Its  corrup- 
tions are  strenuously  defended.  All  examina- 
tion and  all  improvement  are  angrily  repelled. 
The  work  of  reformation  must  not  be  begun  ; 

for,  if  it  be  sufiered  to  begin,  who  can  tell  where 
11* 


126  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

it  will  stop  1  Who  can  tell  how  many  profit- 
able and  convenient  evils  will  be  removed,  or 
how  much  that  is  now  tolerated  will  be 
marked  out  for  reprobation  1  In  the  defenders, 
therefore,  of  the  established  faith,  in  such  writ- 
ers, for  instance,  as  Horsley,  we  often  find  a 
tone  of  authority,  the  insolence  of  artificial 
rank,  and  that  gross  and  impudent  unfairness, 
on  which  few  men  will  venture,  unless  they 
know  that  there  is  a  strong  party  ready  to  cheer 
them  as  victors,  whatever  may  be  their  real  suc- 
cess. If  its  defenders  do  not  write  altogether 
in  the  style  of  those  controvertists  of  former 
days,  who  knew  that  the  executioner  was  at 
hand  to  give  them  aid ;  they  nevertheless  write 
like  men,  who  feel  that  they  have  the  power  of 
the  state  on  their  side,  and  who  are  far  more 
solicitous  to  maintain  than  to  justify  what  is 
established.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  true  and 
useful  learning  ceases  in  a  great  measure  to  be 
cultivated  by  the  clergy.  Those  of  them  who 
make  their  creed  a  matter  of  conscience,  often 
find  it  safest  not  to  examine  too  curiously  the 
history  or  the  doctrines  of  the  faith  which  they 
are  required  to  profess.  Their  creed  presents 
itself  to  them  on  every  side  as  a  check  to  all 
liberal  inquiry  in  the  studies  peculiar  to  their 
station.     Nor  is  much  inquiry  found  necessary ; 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  127 

for  their  church,  with  its  established  institu- 
tions and  doctrines,  relies  for  support  on  a 
power,  which  affords  it  quite  another  sort  of 
aid  than  what  the  learning  and  talents  of  its 
ministers  might  furnish. 

But  a  deficiency  of  learning  and  talents  is 
often  far  from  being  the  worst  characteristic  of 
the  clergy  of  such  an  establishment.  When, 
as  is  commonly  the  case,  its  offices  are  consid- 
ered principally  as  means  of  affording  patron- 
age, or  of  securing  rank  and  emolument,  men 
who  possess  very  different  qualifications  from 
those  necessary  for  their  proper  discharge,  will 
be  most  successful  in  obtaining  them.  A  large 
portion  of  the  professed  ministers  of  religion 
will  then  be  found  not  merely  ignorant  and  in- 
ert, but  destitute  of  religious  principles  and 
feelings,  without  belief  in  any  faith,  worthless 
and  profligate.  In  the  character  of  a  great  part 
of  the  French  clergy  during  the  last  century, 
when  the  highest  offices  of  the  church  were 
filled  by  the  nominations  of  the  atheist  Regent, 
Duke  of  Orleans,  and  of  the  brutal  debauchee, 
Louis  the  Fifteenth,  we  may  perceive  an  exam- 
ple of  what  has  been  said.  In  the  contempt 
and  utter  discredit  which  such  clergymen  must 
have  cast  upon  religion,  —  the  great  principle 
that   holds  human   passions    in  restraint,   and 


128  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

unites  man  to  man,  —  we  may  perceive  a  cause 
which  alone  is  almost  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  awful  disruption  of  society  that  followed. 

But,  long  before  the  evils  of  a  corrupt  estab- 
lishment have  become  so  glaring,  it  is  easy  to 
perceive  its  effects  upon  the  mind  of  the  laity. 
Their  respect  for  religion,  when  not  merely  as- 
sumed as  a  matter  of  policy,  becomes  in  a  great 
part  ceremonial,  exterior,  and  worldly,  the  re- 
spect of  those  who  mistake  what  is  in  fact  noth- 
ing more  than  mere  vulgar  pride  in  the  dignity 
of  their  church,  for  something  corresponding  to 
religious  sentiment  and  principle.  It  is  a  re- 
spect for  a  particular  form  of  faith  and  worship, 
produced  very  much  by  its  associations  with 
antiquity,  and  solemn  buildings,  and  imposing 
ceremonies,  and  high  rank,  and  the  power  of 
the  state.  Nay,  where  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion gain  complete  establishment,  as  in  Spain 
during  the  last  century,  all  regard  for  religion 
may  degenerate  at  last  into  mere  bigotry  to  a 
name,  accompanied  with  the  mechanical  and 
perfectly  unmeaning  observance  of  appointed 
ceremonies. 

Among  an  ignorant  and  superstitious  people, 
there  may  be  a  certain  traditionary  and  exterior 
respect,  and  even  zeal,  for  their  religion,  while 
the  ministers  of  that  religion  are  regarded  with 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  129 

dislike  and  contempt.  "  With  all  this  attach- 
ment to  forms  and  ceremonies,"  says  an  enlight- 
ened traveller,  speaking  of  the  religion  of 
Spain,  "  it  might  naturally  be  expected  that  the 
clergy  would  be  looked  upon  as  objects  of  ven- 
eration ;  but,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  this  is  by  no 
means  the  case.  The  language  held  towards 
the  ministers  of  religion  is  not  always  respect- 
ful, and  is  sometimes  scurrilous."  *  This  sin- 
gular -phenomenon  exists,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  But  it  can- 
not exist  long  where  any  considerable  degree 
of  intellectual  improvement  prevails.  As  soon 
as  the  mind  ceases  to  be  the  mere  slave  of  hab- 
its and  prejudices  on  which  reason  has  never 
acted,  one  of  its  first  rude  operations  will  be  to 
transfer  those  sentiments,  with  which  it  has  re- 
garded the  ministers  of  religion,  to  religion  it- 
self, and  to  associate  them  with  it.  Respect  for 
religion  can  hardly  exist,  in  an  enlightened  com- 
munity, separate  from  respect  for  its  ministers. 

When  the  religion  publicly  taught  is  of  such 
a  character  that  reason  turns  away  from  it,  and 
refuses  to  acknowledge  its  authority,  it  can  have 
but  a  weak  hold  on  the  minds  of  the  more  in- 
telligent, and   exercise  but  little  influence  on 

*  Jacob's  Travels  in  the  South  of  Spain,  p.  93. 


130  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

their  habitual  aifections  and  daily  conduct. 
But  there  is  a  spurious  sort  of  religion  of  the 
imagination  and  of  temporary  sentiment,  which 
sometimes  supplies  the  place  of  the  religion  of 
the  understanding.  There  is  such  desolation 
and  heartlessness  in  utter  scepticism,  that  we 
are  ready  to  turn  from  it  even  to  a  shadowy, 
unsubstantial  image  of  the  truth.  The  resem- 
blance may  indeed  be  preferred  to  the  reality ; 
for,  if  it  has  far  less  of  joy  and  hope,  it  is  also 
far  less  awful  and  authoritative.  Where  real, 
living  religion  does  not  exercise  its  permanent, 
unremitting  influence,  we  may  often  find  in  its 
stead  a  poetical,  theatrical,  mystical  religion, 
which  may  furnish  themes  for  the  expression  of 
fine  sentiment,  and  the  indulgence  of  transient 
emotion ;  which  delights  to  talk  about  sacrifi- 
ces, but  forgets  duties,  and  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  unnoticed  patience  of  obscure  sufier- 
ing,  the  unpraised  self-denials  of  humble  good- 
ness, the  strong  and  silent  feelings  of  habitual 
piety,  or  indeed  with  any  virtues,  but  what  are 
splendid  iind  popular  and  fit  for  exhibition.  It 
is  such  a  religion  as  the  authoress  of  "  Del- 
phine  "  has  celebrated  with  her  passionate  and 
enthusiastic  eloquence.  It  is  this  religion 
which  the  writer  of  the  "  Philosophical  Diction- 
ary," not  to  mention  any  work  more  infamousj 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  131 

could  introduce  into  his  tragedies ;  and  it  is  for 
such  a  religion  that  Moore  and  Byron  may  com- 
pose sacred  songs.  Nobody,  I  trust,  will  so  far 
misunderstand  me,  as  to  suppose  it  my  inten- 
tion to  deny  that  the  sentiments  expressed  by 
such  writers  are  sometimes  beautiful  and  cor- 
rect. I  only  mean,  that  there  is  a  religion,  not 
of  the  understanding,  and  not  of  the  heart, 
which  terminates  in  the  expression  of  fine  sen- 
timents. 

Such,  then,  as  I  have  described,  and  so  great, 
are  the  evils  which  result  from  false  notions  of 
religion.  They  can  be  removed  only  by  estab- 
lishing the  truth ;  and,  to  this  end,  the  truth 
must  be  earnestly  avowed  and  defended,  with 
a  deep-felt  conviction  of  its  value  to  mankind. 
It  is  indeed  an  unpleasant  thing  to  encounter 
prejudices,  however  mischievous,  when  among 
those  who  hold  them  there  are  many,  very  esti- 
mable for  their  virtues,  who  consider  our  pro- 
fessions as  insincere,  and  our  labors  as  profane ; 
and  who  therefore  regard  us  with  much  harsher 
feelings  of  dislike,  than  common  collisions  of 
opinion  are  apt  to  produce.  But,  allowing  this 
to  be  as  great  an  evil  as  you  will,  it  must  still 
be  weighed  against  those  evils  which  it  is  your 
purpose  to  remove ;  and  it  is  but  dust  in  the 
balance.     There  is  no  way  in  which  the  truth 


132  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

can  be  made  to  prevail,  except  by  the  direct 
avowal  orit ;  by  the  forcible  and  full  statement 
of  the  arguments  by  which  it  is  supported ;  and 
by  a  close  encounter  with  opposite  errors.  Un- 
less the  truth  be  clearly  stated  and  defended, 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  it  can  be  made  to  pre- 
vail on  any  disputed  subject ;  and  there  is  cer- 
tainly no  other  way  in  which  you  can  hope  to 
remove  prejudices  so  widely  spread,  and  so  ob- 
stinately maintained,  as  those  respecting  relig- 
ion. Yet  this  encounter  of  truth  with  error  is 
religious  controversy,  of  the  ill  consequences  of 
which  we  sometimes  hear  so  much,  as  well  from 
those  who  are  entitled  to  respect,  as  from  those 
who  are  not.  But  it  is  a  fact,  though  one  not 
universally  recognized,  that  the  manly,  well- 
tempered,  steady  avowal  of  the  truth  tends  far 
more  to  repress,  than  to  excite,  the  bitter  and 
angry  passions  of  our  opponents.  It  has  its  ef- 
fect upon  all  honest  and  fair  minds;  for  the 
tones  of  deep  earnestness  and  strong  convic- 
tion can  hardly  be  mistaken  or  misrepresented. 
It  has  its  effect  upon  minds  of  a  different  char- 
acter ;  for,  where  there  is  no  great  superiority 
of  vantage-ground,  reproach  and  insult  are 
found  in  time  to  be  but  poor  weapons  against 
that  sword,  with  which  truth  is  furnished 
"  from  the  armory  of  God." 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  133 

The  real,  practical  opinions  of  wise  and  vir- 
tuous men  of  diiferent  sects  correspond,  with- 
out doubt,  much  more  nearly  than  their  creeds. 
But  these  creeds  determine,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  the  faith  of  the  generality ;  and  it  is  idle 
to  turn  away  our  eyes,  and  endeavor  to  keep 
out  of  sight  their  direct  opposition  to  each  oth- 
er in  regard  to  doctrines  the  most  momentous. 
Between  the  extremes  of  truth  and  error,  we 
may  find  also  every  shade  of  professed  belief,  in 
proportion  as  men  have  examined  more  or  less 
thoroughly,  and  with  more  or  less  honest  free- 
dom. But,  while  these  various,  wide,  and  most 
important  differences  exist  in  the  professed  faith 
of  Christians,  the  minds  of  many  will  be  con- 
founded and  lost  in  the  search  after  truth,  if 
those  who  are  able  do  not  step  forward  to  as- 
sist and  guide  their  inquiries.  It  is  very  desir- 
able that  men  should  give  up  their  old  errors ; 
for  these  errors  have  been  exceedingly  perni- 
cious ;  but  there  is  danger  lest  he,  whose  faith 
has  rested  principally  on  authority,  and  who 
has  learned  to  doubt  and  dismiss  one  doctrine 
after  another,  should  begin  to  distrust  the 
whole  system  of  religion.  There  is  danger 
that  he  will  be  unable  to  distinguish  for  him- 
self between  its  essential  truths,  and  those 
errors   of  human  origin  which  have   been   so 

12 


134  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

blended  with  it ;  and  that,  in  rejecting  the  lat- 
ter, he  will  at  the  same  time  lose  his  reverence 
for  the  former.  In  order  to  prevent  this  conse- 
quence, it  is  necessary  for  the  defenders  of  real 
religion  to  separate,  and  to  distinguish  most 
clearly,  these  truths  from  those  errors  ;  to  draw 
a  broad  and  deep  line  of  demarcation  between 
them,  and  to  render  evident  the  essential  oppo- 
sition in  their  character  and  effects.  It  is  ne- 
cessary for  them  to  make  it  felt,  to  place  it  out 
of  dispute,  that  it  is  not  any  childish  and  petu- 
lant love  of  innovation,  nor  any  contemptible 
desire  of  attracting  notice  by  assailing  men's 
prejudices,  but  that  it  is  their  interest  in  true 
religion,  their  conviction  of  the  value  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  their  desire  of  promoting  its  influ- 
ence, which  are  their  motives  in  opposing  doc- 
trines, by  which,  as  they  think,  its  value  has 
been  obscured,  and  its  influence  obstructed. 
They  must  show  what  they  maintain,  and  why 
they  maintain  it ;  what  they  oppose,  and  why 
they  oppose  it.  They  must  explain  themselves, 
prudently  and  wisely  as  they  may,  but  very 
earnestly  and  explicitly. 

There  is,  beyond  doubt,  great  reason  to  re- 
joice in  what  has  been  already  effected  toward 
vindicating  the  true  character  of  Christianity. 
But  even  in  those  communities  where  it  is  best 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  135 

understood,  much,  very  much,  remains  to  be 
done,  before  correct  notions  of  religion  can  be 
fully  developed,  and  exhibited  in  all  their  rela- 
tions and  bearings,  and  before  our  religion  can 
be  distinctly  recognized,  and  received  by  men 
in  all  its  purity  and  power.  Old  errors  meet 
and  embarrass  us  on  every  side.  One  false 
doctrine  retreats  upon  another  for  support. 
There  are  many  difficulties  to  be  removed ; 
many  inquiries  to  be  answered ;  and  many  hon- 
est doubts  to  be  solved,  which  have  their  origin 
not  in  the  nature  of  things,  but  in  long  estab- 
lished prejudices.  The  light  is  as  yet  mixed 
and  cloudy.  The  truth  itself,  in  many  minds, 
rests  upon  a  foundation  not  perfectly  secure, 
and  requiring  to  be  strengthened.  There  are 
many  ready  to  believe  it,  and  who  do  believe  it, 
but  whose  faith  requires  to  be  enlightened  and 
confirmed.  There  are  many  whose  opinions, 
though  prevailingly  correct,  are,  in  a  consider- 
able degree,  undefined,  hesitating,  and  incon- 
sistent. There  are  others  in  a  state  of  painful 
uncertainty.  Under  these  circumstances,  there 
is  a  call  for  instruction  and  guidance,  which 
those  who  are  able  to  afford  them  are  not  at 
liberty  to  decline  answering.  Our  fellow-Chris- 
tians are  in  need  of  such  knowledge  as  may  en- 
able them  to  attain  distinct  and  full  conceptions 


136  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

of  religion,  and  to  embrace  it  with  a  satisfied 
mind  and  earnest  faith.  If  it  be  in  our  power 
to  dispense  the  bread  of  instruction  and  life, 
it  will  surely  be  our  guilt  if  we  suffer  them  to 
complain,  that  they  "  look  up  and  are  not  fed." 
But,  in  communicating  this  knowledge,  we 
cannot  advance  a  step  without  encountering 
one  prejudice  or  another.  There  is  nothing 
we  can  teach,  which  will  not  be  contradict- 
ed. There  is  nothing  we  can  propose,  which 
will  not  be  cavilled  at.  There  is  no  informa- 
tion we  can  communicate,  which  will  not  be 
disputed.  Every  plan,  apparently  the  most  un- 
exceptionable, for  advancing  religious  knowl- 
edge will  meet  with  opposition ;  for,  as  this 
knowledge  advances,  some  favorite  error  must 
fall  before  it.  Let  us  consider  one  example. 
For  the  last  century,  there  have  been  reiterated 
and  strong  complaints  of  the  imperfection,  er- 
rors, and  obscurity  of  the  common  English  ver- 
sion of  the  Bible.  There  is  a  series  of  author- 
ities to  this  purpose,  collected  by  Archbishop 
Newcome,*  no  mean  authority  himself.  They 
are  taken  from  writers  of  different  communions 
and  belief,  some  of  them  of  the  first  eminence 

*  In  his  work  entitled  "  An  Historical  View  of  the  English  Bib- 
lical Translations :  the  Expediency  of  Revising,  by  Authority,  our 
present  Translation :  and  the  Means  of  Executing  such  a  Revision. " 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  137 

as  critics  and  theologians,  and  all  of  them  more 
or  less  distinguished.  To  those  whom  he  has 
quoted,  many  more  of  a  similar  character  might 
easily  be  added ;  and  it  may  be  doubted  wheth- 
er there  is  a  name  of  any  weight  to  be  placed 
in  the  opposite  scale.  In  England,  there  has 
been  a  call  from  within  the  Church,  and  from 
without,  for  what  Bishop  Lowth  has  spoken  of 
as  "  that  necessary  work,  a  new  translation,  or 
a  revision  of  the  present  translation,  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,"  by  public  authority.  And  how 
much  has  been  effected  in  consequence  ?  Noth- 
ing. The  jealousy  of  all  change  has  stood  in 
the  way  of  all  improvement.  Those  who  have 
felt  that  they,  personally,  might  hazard  some- 
thing, and  could  gain  nothing,  by  any  altera- 
tion, seem  to  have  cared  little  whether  religion 
might  gain  any  thing  or  not.  Even  in  our 
country,  where  it  is  unsupported  by  public  au- 
thority, the  version  of  King  James's  translators, 
erroneous  as  it  is,  and  in  considerable  portions 
of  it  unintelligible,  at  least  in  any  correct  sense, 
has  attained  the  same  reputation  and  currency 
as  in  England.  It  is  the  only  version  in  com- 
mon use,  the  only  one  distributed  by  our  Bible 
Societies,  the  only  one  read  in  our  pulpits ;  and, 
till  within  a  few  years,  no  other  version  of  any 
part  of  the  Scriptures  could  have  been  readily 

12* 


138  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

procured  in  our  country.  It  seems  to  be  for- 
gotten by  many,  that  it  is  merely  a  faulty  trans- 
lation ;  and  they  appear  to  regard  it  with  the 
same  reverence  as  if  it  were  the  very  original 
of  the  holy  writings.  True  zeal  for  the  Scrip- 
tures would  make  us  earnest  to  furnish  the  best, 
the  very  best,  means  of  understanding  them  cor- 
rectly and  fully.  But  there  is  a  pretended  zeal 
for  the  Scriptures,  which  has  shown  itself  in  a 
quite  different  manner;  and  has  opposed,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  every  effort  for  the  purpose. 

This  is  only  one  instance,  out  of  many,  of  the 
resistance  which  all  attempts  to  communicate 
religious  knowledge  have  met  with,  and  will 
meet  with  hereafter.  Nothing  can  be  effected 
without  a  struggle  and  a  contest ;  and  he  who 
has  a  philosophical  or  an  Epicurean  dislike  to 
controversy,  who  is  fearful  lest  it  should  injure 
his  temper,  or  put  his  dignity  to  hazard,  or  en- 
danger his  reputation,  or  disturb  his  quiet,  may 
assure  himself,  that  he  is  not  such  an  instru- 
ment as  is  required  in  the  work  of  enlightening 
and  reforming  his  fellow-men.  The  Sybarites 
might  as  well  have  been  called  in  to  assist  in 
establishing  the  fortunes  of  the  Eternal  City. 

But  there  is  a  very  different  class  of  men 
whose  aid  is  not  desirable  in  the  attempt  to 
purify  our  religion.     They  are  men,  intemper- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE   RELIGION.  139 

ate,  imprudent,  distinguished  by  their  levity 
of  judgment,  ready  to  believe  that  the  further 
they  remove  from  established  opinions  the 
more  they  shov^  themselves  free  from  vulgar 
prejudices,  fond  of  paradoxes,  valuing  opinions 
for  their  novelty  and  not  for  their  correctness, 
taking  pleasure  in  presenting  even  the  truth  in 
a  form  the  most  offensive  to  their  opponents, 
unable  to  recognize  the  different  appearances 
which  the  same  essential  belief  may  assume  ac- 
cording to  the  various  characters  of  different 
minds,  understanding  little,  and  valuing  less, 
the  judgment  and  toleration  with  which  the 
soundest  principles  are  sometimes  to  be  avow- 
ed, and  having  for  their  principal  object  to  gain 
a  worthless  sort  of  notoriety  on  the  ground  of 
being  original  thinkers.  They  commonly  agree 
with  the  defenders  of  true  religion,  if  they  agree 
at  all,  only  in  attacking  certain  errors,  and  not 
in  maintaining  the  great  truths  of  our  faith. 
But  the  latter  is  the  main  object,  ever  to  be  kept 
in  view ;  and  those  errors  are  to  be  controverted 
because  they  are  inconsistent  with  these  truths. 
Such  auxiliaries  are  more  to  be  feared  than  any 
opponents.  They  resemble  the  predatory  bands 
which  accompany  the  march  of  an  army,  excit- 
ing ill-will  and  dread  in  a  friendly  country,  and 
of  no  use  in  that  of  an  enemy. 


140  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

There  is,  it  may  be  believed,  a  Eeformation 
of  religion  now  taking  place,  of  not  less  impor- 
tance than  that  to  which  the  name  has  been  so 
long  appropriated.  The  purposes  of  God,  in 
giving  Christianity  to  men,  have  not  yet  been 
fully  unfolded.  Without  doubt,  its  truths, 
notwithstanding  the  mass  of  errors  with  which 
they  have  been  encumbered,  have  been  contin- 
ually operating  to  raise  the  character,  and  im- 
prove the  condition,  of  man.  But,  I  trust,  the 
providence  of  God,  in  conferring  this  blessing 
on  our  race,  looked  far  forward,  to  ages  much 
beyond  our  own.  There  are  indications  of  a 
period,  when  the  truths,  and,  in  consequence, 
the  evidences,  of  our  religion  will  be  much  bet- 
ter understood  than  at  present. 

But  it  is  strange,  it  may  be  said,  that  a  reve- 
lation from  God  should  have  been  so  long 
mingled  with  so  much  human  error.  You 
think  it  strange,  then,  that  he  did  not,  by  one 
vast  miracle,  annihilate  in  a  moment  all  those 
errors  respecting  religion  and  duty,  which  thou- 
sands of  years  had  been  accumulating  in  the 
world ;  that  he  did  not  sweep  away  at  once  all 
prejudices  from  the  minds  of  men,  so  that  his 
truth  might  find  unresisted  entrance,  and  hold 
undisputed  sway;  and  that  he  did  not  after- 
ward,  by   a   perpetual   act   of  his   power,   so 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.     141 

strengthen  their  understandings,  and  so  restrain 
their  passions  and  follies,  that  no  false  opin- 
ions should,  in  any  time  to  come,  be  introduced 
and  maintained.  Examine  the  history  of  opin- 
ions, and  you  will  find  that  errors,  either  in  re- 
ligion or  philosophy,  which  have  once  generally 
prevailed,  are  very  slowly  removed  and  super- 
seded. Common  modes  of  conception,  and  the 
popular  belief,  are  transmitted  from  one  gener- 
ation to  another,  like  the  traditionary  customs 
of  the  East.  However  unreasonable  they  may 
be,  it  is  for  the  most  part  only  by  a  very  grad- 
ual process  that  they  are  corrected.  The  men 
of  one  generation  are  the  instructors  of  the 
next.  Coming  ignorant  into  the  world,  we  are 
compelled  first  to  receive  what  others  may  teach 
us ;  to  believe,  under  their  direction,  before  we 
can  exercise  our  own  judgment ;  and  when  our 
instructors  have  been  in  error,  it  takes  us  a 
long  time  to  discover  the  fact,  and  there  are 
few  who  are  able  to  discover  it  at  all.  The 
world  is  very  slow  and  dull  in  unlearning  its 
prejudices.  False  doctrines,  which  sprang  up 
long  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
subsequently  became  connected  with  it,  shoot- 
ing their  branches  among  its  truths,  and  twin- 
ing close  around  them,  so  as  almost  to  conceal 
them  from  view  by  their  rank  and  poisonous 


142  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

luxuriance.  The  same  false  doctrines  still  re- 
main flourishing.  In  opposing  the  errors  of 
Christians,  we  are  in  fact  often  opposing  only 
the  errors  of  heathen  philosophy,  a  little  dis- 
guised, and  somewhat  modified  by  time  and  cir- 
cumstances. 

That  so  much  error  should  have  been  incor- 
porated with  Christianity,  or  rather,  that  Chris- 
tians should  have  fallen  into  so  many  errors  on 
the  subject  of  religion  (for  that  is  the  true  mode 
of  stating  the  fact),  does  not  seem  very  difficult 
to  be  accounted  for,  when  we  consider  how 
much  there  is  in  the  intellectual,  and  still  more 
in  the  moral  imperfections  of  man,  which  may 
lead  him  to  embrace  readily  false  conceptions 
of  his  highest  relations  and  duties ;  when  we 
acquaint  ourselves  with  the  erroneous  doctrines 
in  philosophy,  religion,  and  morals,  which  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  civilized  world  at  the 
time  of  the  introduction  of  our  religion ;  and 
when  we  further  recollect  how  very  slow  and 
reluctant  are  the  changes  which  take  place  in 
the  opinions  of  large  bodies  of  men,  even  under 
the  operation  of  the  most  powerful  causes. 
That  men  should  retain  their  errors  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  clearest  discoveries  of  revelation 
was  not  more  wonderful  eighteen  centuries  ago, 
than  it  is  at  the  present  day.     It  is  not  more 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  143 

wonderful,  than  that  they  should  retain  them 
in  opposition  to  the  clearest  discoveries  of  rea- 
son. 

The  dark  ages  were  the  triumph  and  con- 
summation of  the  errors  and  vices  which  were 
in  the  world  when  Christianity  was  introduced. 
Our  religion  struggled  against  them  and  de- 
layed their  progress ;  and  our  religion  at  last 
delivered  men  from  the  slavery  in  which  they 
were  enthralled.  It  is  to  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity that  the  regeneration  of  Europe  is  to  be 
ascribed.  There  were  men,  who,  if  they  had 
but  imperfect  notions  of  the  real  character  of 
God's  revelation,  yet  felt  the  power  of  some  of 
its  truths ;  and  these  were  the  men  who  made 
successful  resistance  to  the  evils  by  which  the 
world  was  oppressed.  Without  that  elevation 
and  energy  of  mind  which  the  belief  of  immor- 
tality inspires,  without  those  motives  which 
Christianity  alone  affords,  without  that  strong 
feeling  of  right  and  wrong  which  Christian 
morals  alone  produce,  and  without  that  spirit 
of  self-devotion  which  is  the  spirit  of  our  relig- 
ion, I  know  not  how  the  deliverance  of  man- 
kind from  the  reign  of  darkness  could  have 
been  effected.  I  know  not  what  better  hope 
there  would  have  been  for  Europe,  than  there 
is  now  for  Turkey ;  or  why  it  might  not  have 


144  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

continued  to  lie  in  the  same  state  of  degrada- 
tion, moral  and  intellectual,  as  that  in  which 
almost  all  Asia  has  been  sunk  for  at  least  two 
thousand  years. 

Since  its  commencement,  the  work  of  im- 
provement has  been  continually  carried  for- 
ward; and  we  now  breathe  a  free  air  and  en- 
joy a  blessed  light,  such  as  were  never  known 
before.  But  the  work  of  improvement  has 
been  an  arduous  and  severe  struggle,  a  bitter 
conflict.  The  errors  of  men  on  the  most  im- 
portant subjects  have  been  in  alliance  with 
their  selfishness  and  their  vices ;  and  they  have 
together  maintained  their  ground  with  deter- 
mined perseverance.  Our  religious  and  moral 
improvement  has  been  purchased  by  severe 
thought  and  laborious  investigation,  by  high- 
minded  sacrifices  of  worldly  hopes,  by  a  gener- 
ous contempt  of  reproach  and  persecution,  by 
tears  and  blood.  Wise  men  have  spent  them- 
selves in  painful  and  thankless  labors,  and  holy 
men  have  suficred  and  died,  to  procure  for  us 
the  privileges  which  we  enjoy.  In  tracing  the 
melancholy  history  of  our  race,  it  is  to  such 
characters  that  we  must  turn  for  consolation. 
They  give  us  pledges,  on  which  we  may  rely,  of 
the  worth  of  man.  They  have  followed  in  the 
track  of  pure  splendor,  in  which  their  great 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  145 

Master  ascended  to  heaven.  They  have  carried 
on  the  grand  scheme  of  moral  reformation 
which  he  began,  against  similar  opposition  to 
what  he  encountered.  They  have  continued 
the  work  of  glory  and  suffering,  which  he  com- 
mitted to  his  Apostles.  They  have  purchased 
ingratitude  at  the  same  price  which  saints  and 
philosophers  had  paid  before.  There  have  been 
men,  who,  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  virtue,  have 
made  no  compromises  for  their  own  advantage 
or  safety;  who  have  recognized  "the  hardest 
duty  as  the  highest " ;  who,  conscious  of  the 
possession  of  great  talents,  have  relinquished 
all  the  praise  which  they  might  have  so  liberally 
received,  if  they  had  not  thrown  themselves  in 
opposition  to  the  errors  and  vices  of  their  fel- 
low-men, and  have  been  content  to  take  oblo- 
quy and  insult  instead ;  who  have  approached 
to  lay  on  the  altar  of  God  "  their  last  infirmity." 
They  have  felt  that  deep  conviction  of  having 
acted  right,  which  supported  the  martyred  phi- 
losopher of  Athens,  when  he  asked,  "What 
disgrace  is  it  to  me,  if  others  are  unable  to 
judge  of  me,  or  to  treat  me  as  they  ought  ? "  * 
There  is  something  very  solemn  and  sublime  in 

*  — "  ejiioi  be  TL  alarxpov  to  irepovs  firj  bvvacrdai  Trept  e/xoO   ra 
biicaia  firjTe  yv5>vai,  p-r]Te  noirjcrai, ;  ' ' 
13 


146  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

the  feeling  produced  by  considering  how  differ- 
ently these  men  have  been  estimated  by  their 
contemporaries,  from  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  regarded  by  God.  We  perceive  the  appeal 
which  lies  from  the  ignorance,  the  folly,  and 
the  iniquity  of  man,  to  the  throne  of  Eternal 
Justice.  A  storm  of  calumny  and  reviling  pur- 
sued them  through  life,  and  continued,  when 
they  could  no  longer  feel  it,  to  beat  upon  their 
graves.  But  it  is  no  matter.  They  have  gone 
where  all  who  have  suffered,  and  all  who  have 
triumphed,  in  the  same  noble  cause,  receive  their 
reward ;  but  where  the  wreath  of  the  martyr  is 
more  glorious  than  that  of  the  conqueror.* 

There  is  no  sufficient  support  for  good  mor- 
als ;  there  is  no  security  for  the  common  bless- 
ings of  civilized  life;  there  is  no  power  ade- 
quate to  raise  the  condition  of  man,  and  to  re- 

*  Such  examples  Milton  delighted  to  contemplate  and  follow ;  and 
it  was  the  contemplation  of  such  human  examples  which  produced 
the  inspiration  of  the  following  passage  :  — 

"  Servant  of  God,  well  done  !  well  hast  thou  fought 
The  better  fight,  who  single  hast  maintained 
Against  revolted  multitudes  the  cause 
Of  truth :         .         .         .         . 
And  for  the  testimony  of  truth  hast  borne 
Universal  reproach,  far  worse  to  bear 
Than  violence  :  for  this  was  all  thy  care, 
To  stand  approved  in  sight  of  God,  though  worlds 
Judged  thee  perverse." 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  147 

move  the  vices  and  miseries  which  press  so 
heavily  upon  human  society,  except  correct  re- 
ligious principle.  By  comparing  our  own  con- 
dition with  the  condition  of  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded us,  we  may  perceive  that  it  has  already 
effected  not  a  little.  But  more  than  we  can  es- 
timate remains  to  be  done ;  and  there  is  much, 
which,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  we  may 
hope  will  hereafter  be  accomplished.  We  seem, 
indeed,  to  be  gathering  but  the  first  unripe  fruits, 
and  enjoying  but  a  little  foretaste  of  the  rich 
abundance  which  is  promised.  There  have  been 
times  of  ignorance  and  infamous  imposture,  of 
violence  and  triumphant  iniquity,  when  it  was 
no  small  praise  for  those  who  were  contending 
in  the  cause  of  human  improvement,  that  they 
had  not  despaired  of  mankind ;  quod  non  despe- 
rdssent  de  rebus  humanis.  They,  like  the  Tro- 
jan hero,  have  asked  for  no  omen,  but  that  one 
best  omen,  —  eh  olcovo^  apLo-ro^;,  —  the  cause  in 
which  they  were  engaged.  But  we  are  living 
in  a  different  state  of  things. 

There  are,  without  doubt,  those,  to  whom  all 
extended  regard  for  the  happiness  and  improve- 
ment of  their  fellow-men  seems  an  idle  and  vis- 
ionary thing.  It  is  lamentable  that  it  should 
be  so;  and  it  is  a  lamentable  mistake,  if  any 
one,  feeling  this  indifference,  supposes,  at  the 


148  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

same  time,  that  he  has  the  spirit  of  that  relig- 
ion, whose  founder  "  came,  not  to  be  served,  but 
to  serve,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many."  But  there  is  a  living  spring  of  virtue 
and  happiness,  whose  waters  have  as  yet  been 
not  a  little  choked  up,  and  its  channels  not  a 
little  obstructed.  There  is  a  purifying  and  an- 
imating principle,  whose  influences  have  as  yet 
been  very  partially  felt.  It  is  true,  rational, 
practical  religion.  Has  this  no  tendency,  and 
no  power,  to  produce  those  effects,  which  every 
good  and  every  wise  man  must  desire  so  ar- 
dently ]  Even  if  experience  had  not  long  ago 
answered  the  question,  still  there  could  be  no 
doubt  what  answer  must  be  given.  We  are 
every  day  witnessing  its  effects  upon  the  char- 
acters of  those  around  us. 

Imperfect  as  the  best  of  men  may  be,  there 
are  in  every  rank  of  life  those,  whom  if  all 
were  like,  the  world  would  present  a  wonder- 
fully different  aspect  from  what  it  does  at  pres- 
ent. How  have  the  characters  of  such  men 
been  formed  ]  How  is  it  that  those  whom  we 
can  most  trust,  esteem,  and  love,  have  become 
what  they  are?  The  general  answer  is,  that 
their  characters  have  been  formed  under  the  in- 
fluence of  religious  principle,  by  the  continual 
action  of  those  great  practical  truths  which  re- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  149 

ligion  enforces.  They  may  be  of  different  sects  ; 
they  may  profess  different  creeds;  they  may 
even  fancy  that  they  are  wide  asunder  from  each 
other ;  but  they  are  not.  Their  practical  relig- 
ion is  the  same.  There  is  but  one  kind  of  prac- 
tical religion  in  the  world.  It  consists  of  those 
great,  all-important  truths,  which  wise  and  good 
men  hold  in  common.  It  is  to  these  truths, 
that  we  wish  to  give  their  full,  unimpeded 
efficacy.  It  is  these  truths,  which  we  wish  to 
bring  into  action,  unembarrassed  and  unop- 
posed by  the  errors  that  have  been  connected 
with  them.  It  is  for  these  truths,  which  have 
been  the  master  principles  in  forming  the  char- 
acters of  the  most  excellent  of  men,  that  we 
wish  to  procure  more  general  reception  ;  and  it 
is  for  these  truths,  that  we  would  vindicate 
their  preeminent  authority.  All  our  hopes  for 
the  welfare  of  man  are  identified  with  our  hopes 
for  the  prevalence  of  true  religion.  And  this  is 
opposed,  and  has  been  opposed  but  too  effectu- 
ally, by  those  false  doctrines,  for  which  so  many 
are  yet  earnestly  contending.  They  are  among 
the  chief  causes  counteracting  that  one  great 
cause,  to  which  we  must  look  almost  alone  for 
the  production  of  good.  The  rational  and  en- 
lightened Christian,  when  he  finds  men  zealous- 
ly and   pertinaciously  defending  errors,  which 

13* 


150  TRUE  AND  FALSE   RELIGION. 

grossly  misrepresent  our  religion  and  expose  it 
to  disbelief  and  contempt,  will  be  ready  to  use 
language  like  that  which  Tertullian  addressed 
to  the  heretics  of  his  time,  Parce  spei  unicce 
mundi^  —  "  Spare  the  only  hope  of  mankind." 

In  our  endeavors  to  promote  the  influence  of 
rational  religion,  what  are  the  obstacles  which 
present  themselves]  They  are,  in  the  first 
place,  prescriptive  errors  and  traditionary  prej- 
udices. But  these  are  every  day  losing  their 
strength.  They  are  those  selfish  and  vile  pas- 
sions, by  which  every  effort  of  the  moralist  and 
philosopher,  no  matter  what  form  it  may  as- 
sume, is  equally  opposed.  These  present,  there- 
fore, no  peculiar  discouragement  in  the  present 
case.  Are  the  truths  for  which  we  contend  in- 
trinsically difficult  to  be  understood  1  They  are 
not  so.  They  are  as  simple  and  intelligible  as 
they  are  sublime.  The  prospect  which  true  re- 
ligion opens  to  the  mind  has  a  beautiful  and 
solemn  grandeur,  to  which  that  of  the  visible 
heavens  affords  but  a  faint  comparison ;  but  it 
is  with  one  as  with  the  other;  we  need  not 
travel  far,  nor  search  for  our  point  of  view,  in 
order  to  behold  all  that  is  given  us  to  see  of  the 
moral  or  of  the  physical  universe. 

Is  it  impossible  to  render  the  practical  op- 
eration of  these  truths  more  general  and  effect- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  151 

ive  1  Is  it  impossible,  when  religion  joins  her 
voice  to  that  which  experience  has  been  so  long 
uttering,  to  make  men  believe  and  feel,  at  last, 
that  their  duty  and  their  interest  are  the  same ; 
that  the  laws  of  God  are  but  directions  which 
he  has  given  us,  in  his  infinite  wisdom  and  mer- 
cy, for  attaining  our  highest  happiness  ;  that  it 
is  better  to  be  just  and  benevolent,  honored  and 
beloved,  than  to  be  selfish,  unjust,  and  cruel, 
despised,  distrusted,  and  hated;  that  it  is  un- 
wise to  sacrifice  a  great  future  good  to  a  pres- 
ent indulgence,  which  leaves  behind  it  dissatis- 
faction and  repentance ;  and  that  he  who  sub- 
mits the  moral  part  of  his  nature  to  the  animal, 
is  degrading  himself,  and  destroying  his  best 
capacities  for  enjoyment  ?  Is  it  impossible 
that  the  generality  of  men  in  a  Christian  land 
should  be  brought  to  act  as  if  they  really  be- 
lieved these  truths,  and  truths  such  as  these'? 
Whether  it  be  so  or  not,  yet  remains  to  be  de- 
termined. The  experiment  has  never  been 
made.  These  principles  have,  indeed,  gov- 
erned the  lives  of  many.  They  are  familiar  to 
the  moralist,  the  philosopher,  and  the  well  edu- 
cated man.  The  whole  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  intended  to  enforce  these  truths. 
But  they  have  not  been  enforced,  nor  have  they 
been  taught  in  the  popular  systems  of  religion. 


152  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

These  systems  have  made  a  wide  separation  be- 
tween real  virtue,  and  what  they  have  taught 
men  to  consider  as  the  characteristics  of  a 
Christian. 

Do  you  believe  that  the  religion  of  Spain  or 
Italy  has  had  an  effect  to  elevate  and  purify 
the  morals  and  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of 
those  countries,  at  all  corresponding  to  the  ef- 
fect which  true  Christianity  would  have  pro- 
duced 1  Do  you  receive  our  faith  in  its  purity, 
and  can  you  believe  that  the  doctrines  of  Cal- 
vin have  had  any  tendency  to  develop  the 
higher  powers  and  better  affections  of  man  1 
Do  you  believe  that  they  have  flourished  under 
such  culture;  and  that  those  doctrines  have 
really  operated  to  produce  reverence,  love,  and 
gratitude  toward  Him  who  has  formed  us  un- 
der his  curse,  and  active  and  warm-hearted 
benevolence  toward  the  thoroughly  depraved 
and  inexpressibly  odious  beings,  our  fellow- 
men  1 

The  tendency  of  every  prevalent  system  of 
false  religion  has  been  to  call  away  the  atten- 
tion of  men  from  the  practice  of  moral  good- 
ness, and  to  direct  it  to  some  other  object.  All 
such  systems  have  presented  some  substitute 
for  what  pure  religion  requires.  They  have 
misapplied  the  sanctions  of  Christianity,  divert- 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  153 

ing  them  from  their  great  purpose.  They  have 
provided  some  hiding-place  and  shelter  for  the 
baser  passions  ;  and  these,  in  return,  have  often 
been*^ost  zealous  in  their  defence.  This  is  the 
great  characteristic  distinction  between  true  re- 
ligion and  false ;  that  the  former  directs  all  its 
motives  and  sanctions  to  the  production  of  real 
moral  excellence;  and  that  the  latter  sets  up 
something  else  as  the  object  of  its  requisitions 
and  promises.  The  reception  of  a  creed,  the 
belonging  to  a  particular  sect,  zeal  for  the 
Church,  zeal  for  orthodoxy,  even  a  readiness 
to  engage  in  the  work  of  persecution,  the  inflic- 
tion upon  one's  self  of  bodily  torture,  the  prac- 
tice of  useless  austerities,  the  endurance  of  use- 
less privations,  pardons  for  sin  purchased  with 
money  from  a  miserable  fellow-sinner,  reliance 
upon  substituted  merit,  a  fancied  miraculous 
change  of  character,  the  being  elected  to  salva- 
tion by  an  arbitrary  and  irreversible  decree,  — 
these,  and  other  similar  distinctions  and  means, 
have  all  been  represented,  in  various  forms  of 
false  religion  among  Christians,  as  pledges  of 
the  favor  of  God,  and  passports  to  eternal  hap- 
piness. Amid  the  triumph  of  these  different 
errors,  true  moral  excellence,  the  one  and  the 
only  thing  needful,  has  been  regarded  with 
about   as  much  favor   as   a   deposed  monarch 


154  TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

might  expect  from  usurpers,  who  had  seized 
upon  and  divided  his  kingdom.  Make  your- 
self acquainted  with  the  true  characters  of 
many  of  those  with  whom  one  or  another  sys- 
tem of  false  religion  has  peopled  heaven,  and 
consider  whether  it  be  desirable  that  the  num- 
ber of  such  men  should  be  multiplied  upon 
earth.  Are  we  to  expect  any  thing  very  much 
resembling  the  influence  of  true  religion,  from 
systems  which  hold  up  so  false  a  standard  of 
moral  excellence'?  If  we  are  not,  the  experi- 
ment is  yet  to  be  made,  which  shall  determine 
what  that  influence  may  be. 

It  is  the  indissoluble  union  between  the  re- 
ligious opinions  of  men  and  their  moral  charac- 
ters, which  renders  the  former  a  subject  of  such 
great  interest.  The  controversies  which  exist 
respecting  religious  doctrines  are  not,  as  some 
seem  to  believe,  mere  disputes  among  theolo- 
gians, about  speculative  opinions  and  scholastic 
subtilties ;  they  are  a  contest  between  truth 
and  error,  upon  subjects  of  a  practical  impor- 
tance that  cannot  be  estimated.  They  concern 
opinions,  which  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of 
our  hopes,  our  principles,  our  affections,  our 
whole  characters ;  and  which,  as  they  are  true 
or  false,  useful  or  pernicious,  communicate  their 
complexion  and  features  to  the  whole  aspect  of 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.  155 

society.  They  are  controversies  between  truth 
and  error  respecting  essential  doctrines  in  the 
highest  department  of  human  knowledge.  The 
present  state  of  things  is  the  result  of  the  march 
of  intellectual  improvement,  which,  advancing 
rapidly  elsewhere,  has  been  stopped,  and  thrown 
back,  by  the  prejudices  that  have  intrenched 
themselves  on  religious  ground.  No  one  inter- 
ested in  the  well-being  of  his  fellow-men  is 
privileged  to  stand  aloof,  and  look  on  with  in- 
difference. There  is  a  moral  obligation  upon 
every  man,  similar  to  that  law  which  bound 
the  citizens  of  Athens,  in  their  civil  divisions, 
to  take  part  with  the  one  side  or  the  other. 
Those  theologians  who  are  engaged  in  defend- 
ing the  truth,  are  engaged  in  maintaining  the 
great  cause  of  intellectual  improvement,  of  good 
morals,  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  of  ra- 
tional piety,  of  human  happiness,  —  of  man- 
kind. They  have  a  right  to  expect  the  aid  of 
all  who  are  interested  in  the  same  objects. 
They  have  a  right  to  expect,  that  those  who 
are  employed  in  other  intellectual  pursuits,  and 
other  efforts  to  benefit  their  fellow-men,  will 
not  so  separate  and  disconnect  themselves,  as 
they  have  sometimes  done,  through  misappre- 
hension of  the  importance  of  the  controversy, 
and   through   disgust   at  the  style  of  reason- 


156  TRUE   AND  FALSE  RELIGION. 

ing  and  modes  of  attack,  which  they  must  en- 
counter. 

Are  you  interested  in  advancing  human 
knowledge,  and  can  you  think  it  a  matter  of 
indifference,  whether  men  hold  the  grossest  er- 
rors or  the  sublimest  truths  concerning  the 
very  highest  subjects  of  speculation  1  You  can 
hardly  help  feeling  some  degree  of  indignation 
and  contempt  toward  those  who  condemned 
Galileo  to  the  prisons  of  the  Inquisition,  for 
teaching  the  motion  of  the  earth ;  or  toward 
the  men  who  calumniated  and  persecuted  Har- 
vey, because  he  made  known  the  circulation  of 
the  blood.  You  respect  the  good  sense  and 
courage  of  those,  by  whom  these  truths  were 
first  maintained,  in  opposition  to  surrounding 
ignorance  and  prejudice.  But  nobody  will 
think  it  too  much  to  say,  that  these  truths  are 
not  to  be  compared  in  importance  with  those 
which  relate  to  the  character  and  moral  gov- 
ernment of  God,  and  to  the  condition,  duty, 
and  destination  of  man.  You  are  desirous  of 
diffusing  the  blessings  of  instruction  through 
the  community,  of  carrying  knowledge  and 
light  to  the  poor  man's  dwelling.  Is  there  any 
knowledge  which  will  be  of  such  value  to  him 
as  the  knowledge  of  his  duty  and  his  hopes  ;  as 
that  knowledge  which  will  make  him  a  good 


TRUE  AND  FALSE  RELIGION.     157 

citizen,  which  will  reconcile  him  to  his  situa- 
tion, and  which  may,  at  the  same  time,  raise 
him  to  an  essential  equality  with  the  most  fa- 
vored of  mankind]     You  are  interested,  gener- 
ally, in  the  well-being  of  your  fellow-men ;  you 
are  ready  to  afford  your  aid  to  those  who  would 
lessen  the  amount  of  abuses  and  oppressions,  of 
crimes  and  miseries,  which  prey  upon  society ; 
you  admire  the  intense  energy  of  moral  feeling 
which  carried  Howard,  as  a  minister  of  good, 
wherever  human  wretchedness  was  to  be  found  ; 
you  know  how  to  estimate  the  patient,  untired, 
unyielding   efforts   of  those  who  have  almost 
succeeded  in  relieving  the  civilized  world  from 
the   curse   and  the  infamy  of  the  slave-trade; 
you  at  least  give  your  good  wishes  to  those  who 
would  save  mankind  from  the  guilt  and   the 
horrors    of  war ;    you  are  interested  in  every 
plan  of  enlightened  benevolence  ;  —  is  it  possi- 
ble, then,  that  you  can  be  uninterested  in  assert- 
ing the  character  of  those  truths  which  are  the 
support  of  all  the  social  virtues,  and  without 
the  belief  of  which,  true,  self-denying,  persever- 
ing benevolence  would  find  no  dwelling-place 
on   earth "?      The   belief    of   these   truths   has 
formed  the  characters  of  that  class  of  men  in 
society,  on  which  the  good  order  and  happiness 
of  the   community   depend,   and   from    whick 

14 


158  TRUE   AND  FALSE   RELIGION. 

alone  you  can  look  for  safe  auxiliaries  in  any 
endeavor  to  reform  the  evils  which  are  in  the 
world,  and  to  improve  the  human  condition. 
This  belief  alone  can  give  birth  to  that  disin- 
terested love  of  virtue,  and  of  mankind,  which 
pursues  its  object  through  good  report  and 
evil  report,  through  opposition,  and  danger, 
and  suffering ;  and  has  pursued  it  even  into  the 
arms  of  death.  It  is  this  belief  which  creates 
the  well-disposed  citizen,  the  real  patriot,  and 
the  enlightened  and  practical  philosopher.  If 
you  doubt  the  value  of  true  religion,  look  to 
experience,  and  look  to  human  nature.  If  you 
do  not  doubt  it,  can  you  fail  to  give  your  aid  to 
those  who  would  vindicate  its  character  and  ex- 
tend its  influence  1 


YIEWS   OF  CALYINISM 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 


Shortly  after  the  appearance  of  the  preceding  tract, 
the  truth  of  the  representation  given  in  it  of  some  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Calvinism  (see  p.  107)  was  denied  in  a  periodical 
work  entitled  the  "  Christian  Spectator,"  published  at  New- 
Haven.  This  denial  led  me  to  make  a  full  statement  of 
those  doctrines  in  an  article  first  published  in  the  "  Christian 
Disciple"  for  July  and  August,  1822.  The  substance  of 
this  article  is  contained  in  the  tract  which  follows.  I  have 
omitted  those  portions  which  were  only  of  temporary  inter- 
est and  immaterial  to  the  main  object  in  view,  the  giving  of 
a  correct  account  of  Calvinism,  and  I  have  added  a  few  re- 
marks at  the  end.  For  the  most  part,  it  is^  as  my  purpose 
required,  little  more  than  a  mere  compilation.  The  obser- 
vation is  perhaps  unnecessary,  that  the  system  of  doctrines 
about  to  be  set  forth  has  been  called  Calvinism,  not  because 
it  had  its  origin  with  Calvin,  but  because  he  has  been  looked 
up  to  as  its  most  conspicuous  defender. 

Some  readers  may  be  disposed  to  ask  why  so  shocking  an 
exhibition  should  be  made  at  the  present  day.  No  one  now, 
they  may  say,  or  at  least  no  considerable  body  of  men,  as- 
serts the  truth  of  these  doctrines.  They  may  be  inclined  to 
turn  away  from  their  exhibition  with  some  resentment  that 
14* 


162  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

so  painful  a  spectacle  should  be  brought  before  them,  and  a 
vague  feeling  of  incredulity  as  to  the  possibility  that  such 
doctrines  have  been  believed.  It  is  indeed  an  article  not 
suited  to  every  class  of  readers  ;  but  to  the  student  of  human 
nature,  to  him  who  would  know  what  men  can  believe  and 
how  they  can  feel,  to  him  who  recognizes  the  importance  of 
the  history  of  opinions,  and  especially  of  the  history  of  hu- 
man errors  respecting  religion  and  Christianity,  the  phenom- 
enon that  these  doctrines  have  prevailed  so  widely  among 
Protestants,  and  even  extended  into  the  Romish  Church,  — 
possessing  the  minds  of  such  men  as  Pascal  and  the  Port- 
Royalists,  —  this  phenomenon  is  one  of  the  most  instructive 
facts  to  which  he  can  direct  his  attention. 

But  it  may  still  be  objected,  that  such  an  exhibition  is,  at 
all  events,  not  required  for  the  removal  of  errors  now  exist- 
ing,— that  these  errors  have  become  obsolete.  A  contro- 
versy (principally  conducted  by  other  hands)  followed  the 
publication  of  the  "  Views  of  Calvinism,"  and  one  of  the 
last  publications  of  the  writer  or  writers  in  the  "  Christian 
Spectator"  contained  the  following  passage,  in  which  the  ob- 
jection just  stated  is  implied  :  — 

"  What  Calvin  believed  and  taught,  and  what  any  modern 
Calvinistic  authors  have  taught,  are  questions  of  no  real  im- 
portance in  the  present  discussion,  any  farther  than  their 
opinions  are  proved  to  be  prevalent  in  our  own  times  and  in 
our  own  country.  If  therefore  the  Professor  of  Sacred  Lit- 
erature in  Cambridge  University  thinks  it  an  object  worthy 
his  zeal  and  labor  to  collect  and  expose  the  opinions  of  oth- 
er centuries,  or  even  the  individual  opinions  of  some  in  our 
own  age,  let  him  have  the  candour  frankly  to  acquaint  the 
public  with  his  design." 

Before  remarking  on  the  objection  I  have  mentioned,  it 
may  be  observed  incidentally,  that  in  my  statement,  the  truth 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  163 

of  which  was  so  confidently  denied,  and  the  truth  of  which, 
therefore,  was  not  only  of  real  importance  in  the  discussion, 
but  the  sole  point  at  issue,  I  said  nothing  about  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  doctrines  alleged  were  prevalent  in  this 
country  or  not.  I  did  not  undertake  to  determine  (for  it  was 
wholly  aside  from  my  purpose)  whether  all  those  who  called 
themselves  Calvinists  were  really  Calvinists. 

Calvinism,  it  is  contended,  has  undergone  a  change.  It  is 
not  now  the  system  of  doctrines  that  was  maintained  by  Cal- 
vin, and  the  Synod  of  Dort,  and  the  Westminster  Assembly, 
and  which  has  made  its  way  into  the  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England  and  into  the  creeds  of  so  many  other  Protestant 
sects.  It  may  be  said  that  it  now  exists,  for  the  most  part, 
in  a  qualified  and  mitigated  form.  But  its  original  doctrines 
are  still  taught  in  the  creeds  of  Protestant  sects,  as  the  char- 
acteristic doctrines  of  Christianity.  If  some  belief  resem- 
bling that  expressed  in  those  doctrines  is  to  be  received  as 
true,  and  can  be  presented  in  a  form  less  revolting  to  our 
reason  and  our  moral  sentiments,  those  creeds  should  be  re- 
modelled, and  the  less  offensive  teaching,  which  is  supposed 
to  be  true,  should  be  substituted  for  the  more  offensive, 
which  is  acknowledged  to  be  false.  But  the  doctrines  of 
Calvinism  do  not  admit  of  being  qualified  or  mitigated.  All 
that  can  be  done  by  way  of  removing  their  offence  is  to 
keep  them  out  of  view,  and  to  present  in  popular  discourses 
other  doctrines,  which  may  appear  to  be,  but  are  not,  incon- 
sistent with  them.  Take,  for  example,  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine of  reprobation,  which  teaches  that  a  large  portion  of 
mankind  are  born  into  the  world  doomed  by  God  to  be 
wholly  inclined  to  all  moral  evil,  and  to  suffer  everlasting 
misery.  What  is  the.  veil  which .  has  been  thrown  over  this 
doctrine  to  conceal  its  hideousness  ?  It  is  this,  —  we  are  told 
that  if  we  perish  the  fault  is  wholly  our  own ;  that  we  can 


164  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

obey  God's  laws  and  save  ourselves  from  misery  if  we  will. 
But  this  is  only  a  wretched  concealment  of  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine,  a  subterfuge  which  is  disdainfully  rejected  by  Cal- 
vin himself.  It  is  simply  a  prevarication ;  the  assertion  of 
a  virtual  falsehood  in  the  guise  of  truth.  The  real  truth  of 
which  it  presents  a  false  semblance  is  the  very  opposite  of 
Calvinism.  What  Calvinism  teaches  is,  that  we  are  born 
with  such  natures  that  we  cannot  will  to  obey  the  laws  of 
God.  Yet  the  assertion  that  we  can  obey  his  laws  if  we 
will,  it  being  understood  that  we  cannot  will  to  do  so,  is  per- 
haps the  most  plausible  piece  of  sophistry  which  has  been 
brought  forward  in  the  attempt  to  exhibit  Calvinism  in  a  miti- 
gated form. 

In  the  existing  state  of  things,  when  ignorance  and  mis- 
judgment  concerning  every  thing  connected  with  Christianity 
have  spread  so  widely,  and  so  much  indifference  to  religious 
Truth  exists,  it  is  not  improbable  that  many  who  call  them- 
selves Calvinists  have  but  a  vague  and  fluctuating  faith  in 
their  creed.  I  do  not  question  that  the  same  is  true  in  re- 
gard to  other  great  errors  which  have  been  represented  as 
essential  to  our  religion.  No  one  can  doubt  that  there  are 
many  who  make  a  public  profession  of  belief  in  creeds 
which  they  do  not  believe.  Their  incredulity  by  no  means 
diminishes  the  injury  done  to  Christianity  by  those  creeds  to 
which  they  give  their  countenance,  or  palliates  the  wrong 
which  they  perpetrate  against  their  fellow-men  in  misguid- 
ing them  from  the  truth,  or  repelling  them  from  it,  by  sub- 
stituting falsehood  in  its  place.  These  professed  believers 
are  among  the  most  culpable  of  the  supporters  of  error.  He 
who  really  believes  even  such  a  system  as  I  am  about  to  set 
forth,  may  think  he  has  some  justification  or  excuse  in  pro- 
pounding it  to  others.  He  may  so  deceive  himself  as  thus 
to  think  ;  —  though,  in  fact,  if  the  system  were  true,  if  the 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE.  165 

greater  part  of  men,  as  it  teaches,  are  bom  under  a  curse, 
foredoomed  to  eternal  sin  and  eternal  misery,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  imagine  what  good  might  be  hoped  from  its  gen- 
eral, untempered  reception. 

This  system,  however,  is  presented  in  the  creeds  of  a  very 
large  portion  of  Protestants.  It  still  operates  on  many 
minds,  corrupting  the  faith  of  some  and  driving  away  others 
from  our  religion.  It  still  has  zealous  and  confident  defend- 
ers. In  lately  turning  over  a  number  of  a  journal  of  some 
celebrity,  "  The  North  British  Review,"  (that  for  February, 
1851,)  I  met  with  the  following  passage  :  — 

"We  are  bold  to  say,  that  Calvinism  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
Established  Churches  of  England  and  Scotland ;  and  if  its 
tenets  are  an  outrage  to  reason  and  derogatory  to  God,  these 
Churches  are  no  longer  temples  of  truth,  but  synagogues  of 
error.  We  venture  also  to  declare  it  to  be  our  own  opinion, 
that  Calvinism  is  the  highest  philosophy  and  the  truest  relig- 
ion. If  it  is  not  philosophy,  man  is  without  Reason :  —  If  it 
is  not  religion,  he  is  without  Revelation."  —  p.  566. 

In  another  part  of  the  same  number,  in  complaining  of 
what  is  called  "  an  utter  misrepresentation  of  Calvinism  " 
by  the  author  of  "  Alton  Locke,"  this  assertion  is  made :  — 
"  Calvinism  is,  when  properly  stated,  the  noblest  formal  and 
systematized  expression  that  has  ever  been  given  to  the 
world  of  those  transcendent  relations  that  bind  man  to  the 
supernatural  and  the  infinite."  —  p.  390,  note. 

From  the  following  article  one  may  learn  what  that  system 
is  which  is  thus  celebrated  as  "  the  highest  philosophy  and 
the  truest  religion,"  and  judge  how  far  it  is  capable  of  be- 
ing misrepresented  to  its  prejudice. 


YIEWS    or  CALYINISM. 


In  the  preceding  tract,  the  following  passage 
occurs :  ■: — 

"True  religion  is  an  inestimable  blessing;  because  it 
teaches  that  God  is  the  everlasting  Friend  and  Father  of 
his  creatures,  a  God  of  infinite  goodness.  But  what  shall 
we  say  of  a  religion  which  teaches  that  he  has  formed  men 
so  that  they  are  by  nature  wholly  inclined  to  all  moral  evil ; 
that  he  has  determined  in  consequence  to  inflict  upon  the 
greater  part  of  our  race  the  most  terrible  punishments  ;  and 
that,  unless  he  has  seen  fit  to  place  us  among  the  small  num- 
ber of  those  whom  he  has  chosen  out  of  the  common  ruin,  he 
will  be  our  eternal  enemy  and  infinite  tormentor ;  that,  having 
hated  us  from  our  birth,  he  will  continue  to  exercise  upon  us 
for  ever  his  unrelenting  and  omnipotent  hatred  !  Whatever 
may  be  the  worth  of  true  religion,  it  surely  does  not  follow, 
that  this  system  of  blasphemy  must  be  also  of  great  value, 
and  very  beneficial  in  its  effects.  Yet  he  must  be  a  very  ig- 
norant, or  a  very  bold  man,  who  will  aflSrm,  that  the  doctrines 
last  stated  have  not  been  taught,  and  very  extensively  too, 
as  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity." 

As  I  have   mentioned   in    the    Introductory 


168  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

Note  to  the  present  article,  the  truth  of  this 
representation  was  denied  in  a  periodical  pub- 
lication of  the  day,  —  in  which  it  was  said :  — 

"  Did  not  the  author  know,  when  he  penned  this  passage, 
that  '  this  system  of  blasphemy  '  never  was  taught,  or  pro- 
fessed '  extensively,  as  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity '  ?  —  that  there  never  was  a  sect,  or  body  of  men,  de- 
nominated Christian,  who  would  not  reject  it  as  false  and 
injurious,  if  presented  to  them  as  their  creed  ?  —  that  there 
never  was  an  individual  author,  of  any  celebrity  or  influence, 
who  ever  taught,  or  undertook  to  defend,  such  doctrines  ? 
This,  at  least,  he  must  have  known,  that  neither  '  the  Insti- 
tutes of  Calvin,'  nor  '  the  works  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly,' nor  any  of  the  Protestant  Confessions  of  Faith,  and, 
least  of  all,  the  confessions  of  those  to  whom  he  intended  it 
should  be  applied,  contain  doctrines  which  are  fairly  repre- 
sented by  any  clause  of  the  foregoing  extract.  How  are 
we  then  astonished,  when  to  this  injurious  representation  the 
author  has  the  effrontery  to  add  — '  he  must  be  a  very  ig- 
norant, or  a  very  bold  man,  who  will  affirm,  that  the  doc- 
trines last  stated  have  not  been  taught,  and  very  extensively 
too,  as  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity.'  The  hold- 
ness,  or  the  ignorance,  plainly  belongs  to  the  man  who 
could  bring  such  a  charge  against  an  extensive  class  of  the 
Christian  community  —  a  charge  which  cannot  be  substan- 
tiated by  fair  quotations  from  any  standard  author,  or  any 
public  confession  of  faith." 

The  purpose  of  the  following  exposition  is  to 
show,  that  there  is  no  misstatement  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Calvinism  in  the  passage  remarked 
upon. 


VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM.  169 

The  propositions  impliedly  asserted  in  this 
passage  to  be  doctrines  of  Calvinism  are  the 
following :  — 

1.  That  God  has  formed  men. 

2.  That  they  are  so  formed,  or,  in  other 
words,  that  God  has  so  formed  them,  that  they 
are  by  nature  wholly  inclined  to  all  moral  evil. 

3.  That,  in  consequence  of  this  nature,  God 
inflicts  on  those  who  remain  as  they  were  thus 
formed  to  be,  the  most  terrible  punishments; 
that  he  will  be  their  eternal  enemy  and  infinite 
tormentor ;  that,  having  hated  them  from  their 
birth,  he  will  continue  to  exercise  upon  them 
for  ever  his  unrelenting  and  omnipotent  hatred. 

4.  That,  though  he  has  chosen  some  to  be 
saved  out  of  the  common  ruin,  their  number  is 
comparatively  small. 

In  showing  these  to  be  doctrines  of  Calvin- 
ism I  shall  use  but  few^  authorities,  but  they 
will  be  authorities  of  the  highest  character.  If 
the  case  required  it,  an  indefinite  number  of 
others  might  be  adduced. 

As  to  the  first  proposition,  that  God  has 
formed  men,  or  that  God  is  our  Creator,  —  that, 
whatever  we  are  when  we  come  into  existence, 
he  forms  us  such  as  we  are,  —  I  trust  there  will 
be  no  dispute.     I  suppose  no  one  will  deny  it 

15 


170  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

to  be  a  doctrine  of  Calvinism,  that  God  is  the 
Creator  of  men. 

The  second  proposition  is,  that,  when  formed 
or  created  by  God,  men  are  so  formed  that  they 
are  wholly  inclined  to  all  moral  evil. 

So  says  the  "Westminster  Assembly's  Larger 
Catechism. 

"  The  Fall  brought  mankind  into  an  estate  of  sin  and  mis- 
ery  The  sinfulness  of  that  estate  whereinto  man 

fell,  consisteth  in  the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin,  the  want  of  that 
righteousness  wherein  he  was  created,  and  the  corruption  of 
his  nature,  whereby  he  is  utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and 
made  opposite  unto  all  that  is  spiritually  good,  and  wholly  in- 
clined to  all  evil,  and  that  continually ;  which  is  commonly 
called  Original  Sin,  and  from  which  do  proceed  all  actual 
transgressions."  —  Answers  23,  25. 

So  says  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Confes- 
sion. 

"  Man,  by  his  fall  into  a  state  of  sin,  hath  wholly  lost  all 
ability  of  will  to  any  spiritual  good  accompanying  salvation ; 
so  as  a  natural  man,  being  altogether  averse  from  that  good, 
and  dead  in  sin,  is  not  able,  by  his  own  strength,  to  convert 
himself,  or  to  prepare  himself  thereunto."  —  Ch.  IX.  §  3. 

In  these  passages  is  described  the  present 
state  of  men,  as  they  come  into  the  world  from 
the  hands  of  their  Creator.  Nobody,  I  suppose, 
can  be  weak  enough  to  imagine  that  the  cir- 
cumstance, that  the  fall  of  Adam  is  assigned 
as  the  cause  why  men  are  in  this  state,  affects 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  171 

the  correctness  of  the  account  I  have  given  of 
the  state  itself  as  here  described. 

The  following  passage  is  from  Calvin's 
"  Short  Formula  of  a  Confession  of  Faith  " :  — 

"  I  confess  that  in  Original  Sin  are  comprehended  blind- 
ness of  mind  and  perversity  of  heart ;  so  that  we  are  entire- 
ly despoiled  and  destitute  of  every  thing  connected  with  eter- 
nal life  ;  so  that  even  our  very  natural  faculties  are  all  de- 
praved and  contaminated.  Whence  it  is  that  we  are  moved 
from  within  by  no  thought  to  do  well.  Wherefore  I  detest 
those  who  ascribe  to  us  any  freedom  of  will,  by  which  we 
may  prepare  ourselves  to  receive  the  grace  of  God  ;  or  by 
which  we  may  of  ourselves  cooperate  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  may  be  given  us."  —  Tractatus  Theologici.  0pp. 
VIII.  90,  91.     Ed.  Amst.  1667  -  71. 

The  words  immediately  preceding  this  confes- 
sion are  these :  — 

"  We  are  every  one  of  us  born  infected  with  Original  Sin, 
and  from  ourmother's  womb  are  under  the  curse  of  God, 
and  a  sentence  of  damnation  ;  and  this  not  on  account  of  an- 
other's sin  only,  but  on  account  of  the  wickedness  which  is 
within  us  even  when  it  does  not  show  itself." 

The  following  account  of  Original  Sin  was 
given  by  the  famous  Synod  of  Dort :  — 

"  All  men  are  conceived  in  sin,  and  born  children  of 
wrath,  without  ability  for  any  good  tending  to  salvation, 
inclined  to  evil,  dead  in  sins,  and  slaves  of  sin  ;  and,  without 
the  regenerating  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  have  neither 
will  nor  power  to  return  to  God,  to  correct  their  depraved 


172  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

nature,  or  to  dispose  themselves  to  its  correction."  —  Acta 
Synodi  Dordrechti  hahitcB  (Lugd.  Batav.  1620),  p.  256. 

The  first  article  of  their  "  Canons "  of  Chris- 
tian faith  is  this  :  — 

"  As  all  men  have  sinned  in  Adam  and  become  obnoxious 
to  a  curse  and  eternal  death,  God  would  have  done  injustice 
to  no  one,  if  he  had  willed  to  leave  the  whole  human  race 
in  sin,  and  under  a  curse,  and  to  damn  them  on  account  of 
sin  ;  —  ac  propter  peccatum  damnarey  —  Ibid.  p.  241. 

The  following  is  the  account  in  the  "  Confes- 
sion of  the  Belgic  Churches,"  finally  approved 
and  adopted  by  the  Synod. 

"  We  believe  that,  by  the  disobedience  of  Adam,  Original 
Sin  was  diffused  through  the  whole  race  of  man  ;  which 
is  the  corruption  of  the  whole  nature  and  an  hereditary 
depravity,  by  which  even  infants  are  polluted  in  their  moth- 
er's womb,  and  from  which  as  a  root  every  kind  of  sin 
is  produced  in  man  ;  and  thus  it  is  so  vile  and  execrable  in 
the  sight  of  God,  that  it  is  sufficient  for  the  condemnation 
of  the  human  race."  —  Ihid.  p.  305. 

President  Edwards  has  the  reputation  of  be- 
ing the  most  able  expositor  and  defender  of 
Calvinism  in  modern  times.  His  views  respect- 
ing the  nature  with  which  men  are  born  appear 
in  the  following  passages. 

"  I  now  proceed  to  say,  that  mankind  are  all  naturally  in 
such  a  state,  as  is  attended,  without  fail,  with  this  conse- 
quence or  issue,  that  they  universally  run  themselves  into 
that,  which  is,  in  effect,  their  own  utter,  eternal  perdition,  as 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  173 

being  finally  accursed  of  God,  and  the  subjects  of  his  rem- 
ediless wrath  through  sin."  —  On  Original  Sin.  Works 
(Worcester  ed.,  1808-9),  VI.  137. 

"  If  by  flesh  and  spirit,  when  spoken  of  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  opposed  to  each  other,  in  discourses  on  the  ne- 
cessary quaUfications  for  salvation,  we  are  to  understand  what 
has  been  now  supposed,  it  will  not  only  follow  that  men  are 
corrupt  by  nature,  but  wholly  corrupt,  without  any  good 
thing.  If  by  flesh  is  meant  man's  nature,  as  he  receives  it 
in  his  first  birth,  then  therein  dwelleth  no  good  thing ;  as 
appears  by  Rom.  vii.  18.  It  is  wholly  opposite  to  God  and 
to  subjection  to  his  law  ;  as  appears  by  Rom.  viii.  7,  8.  It 
is  directly  contrary  to  true  holiness,  and  wholly  opposes  it, 
and  holiness  is  opposite  to  that ;  as  appears  by  Gal.  v.  17. 
So  long  as  men  are  in  their  natural  state,  they  not  only  have 
no  good  thing,  but  it  is  impossible  they  should  have  or  do 
any  good  thing."  —  Ihid.  p.  322. 

"  So  that,  on  the  whole,  there  is  sufficient  reason  to  under- 
stand the  Apostle,  when  he  speaks  of  the  natural  man  in 
that  1  Cor.  ii.  14,  as  meaning  man  in  his  native,  corrupt 
state.  And  his  words  represent  him  as  totally  corrupt, 
wholly  a  stranger  and  enemy  to  true  virtue  or  holiness,  and 
things  appertaining  to  it,  which  it  appears  are  commonly 
intended  in  the  New  Testament  by  things  spiritual,  and 
are  doubtless  here  meant  by  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
These  words  also  represent  that  it  is  impossible  man  should 
be  otherwise  while  in  his  natural  state."  —  Ibid.  p.  324. 

"  If  the  Scriptures  represent  all  mankind  as  wicked  in 
their  first  state,  before  they  are  made  partakers  of  the  ben- 
efits of  Christ's  redemption,  then  they  are  wicked  by  nature  ; 
for  doubtless  men's  first  state  is  their  native  state,  or  the 
state  they  come  into  the  world  in.  But  the  Scriptures  do 
thus  represent  all  mankind."  — Ibid.  p.  325. 
15* 


174  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

"  If  it  be  so  with  all  mankind,  that  as  soon  as  ever  they 
are  capable  of  reflecting  and  knowing  their  own  moral  state, 
they  find  themselves  wicked,  this  proves  that  they  are  wick- 
ed by  nature  ;  either  born  wicked,  or  born  with  an  infalli- 
ble disposition  to  be  wicked  as  soon  as  possible,  if  there  be 
any  difference  between  these,  and  either  of  them  will  prove 
men  to  be  born  exceedingly  depraved."  —  Ibid.  pp.  325, 
326. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  adduce  a  larger  number 
of  passages  to  the  present  point,  especially  as 
most  of  those  to  be  quoted  under  the  heads 
which  immediately  follow  bear  directly  upon  it. 

The  next  proposition  which  is  to  be  proved 
a  doctrine  of  Calvinism  is  this :  —  That,  in 
consequence  of  the  nature  which  has  been  de- 
scribed as  common  to  all  men,  God  inflicts  on 
those  who  retain  the  nature  with  which  he 
formed  them  the  most  terrible  punishments  ; 
that  he  will  be  their  eternal  enemy  and  infinite 
tormentor ;  that,  having  hated  them  from  their 
birth,  he  will  continue  to  exercise  upon  them 
for  ever  his  unrelenting  and  omnipotent  hatred. 

This  doctrine  is  thus  stated  by  the  Westmin- 
ster Divines  in  their  Larger  Catechism :  — 

"  The  Fall-brought  upon  mankind  the  loss  of  communion 
with  God,  his  displeasure  and  curse,  so  as  we  are  by  nature 
children  of  wrath,  bond-slaves  to  Satan,  and  justly  liable 
to  all  punishments  in  this  world,  and  that  which  is  to  come. 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  175 

"  The  punishments  of  sin  in  this  world  are  either  inward, 
as  blindness  of  mind,  a  reprobate  sense,  strong  delusions, 
hardness  of  heart,  horror  of  conscience,  and  vile  affections; 
or  outward,  as  the  curse  of  God  upon  the  creatures  for  our 
sakes,  and  all  other  evils  that  befall  us  in  our  bodies, 
names,  estates,  relations,  and  employments,  together  with 
death  itself. 

"  The  punishments  of  sin  in  the  world  to  come  are 
everlasting  separation  from  the  comfortable  presence  of 
God,  and  most  grievous  torments  in  soul  and  body,  without 
intermission,  in  hell-fire  for  ever."  —  Anss.  27-  29. 

To  all  these  punishments  we  are,  it  is  to  he 
ohserved,  justly  liable  for  what  we  are  by  nature. 

Calvin,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Institutes, 
Ch.  I.  §  8,  defines  Original  Sin  to  be  "  the  he- 
reditary depravity  and  corruption  of  our  nature, 
extending  to  every  part  of  the  mind,  which,  in 
the  first  place,  makes  us  justly  liable  to  the 
wrath  of  God  (quce  primum  facit  reos  irce 
Dei);  and  next  produces  those  works  in  us, 
which  the  Scripture  calls  the  works  of  the 
flesh." 

Whether  Calvin  was  likely  to  shrink  from 
the  doctrine  which  I  have  stated,  as  too  horrible 
to  make  a  part  of  his  system,  may  be  judged 
from  the  following  passage,  where  he  is  treat- 
ing of  predestination. 

"  With  regard  to  those  whom  God  created  for  contumely 
in  life  and  for  eternal  death,  that  they  might  be  vessels  of 


176  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

his  wrath,  and  examples  of  his  severity ;  he,  in  order  that 
they  may  come  to  their  appointed  end,  at  one  time  deprives 
them  of  the  power  of  hearing  his  word,  and  at  another 
blinds  and  stupefies  them  the  more  by  its  preaching."  —  In* 
stituL  Lib.  III.  c.  24.  §  12. 

Respecting  the  natural  state  of  man,  I  will 
add  a  few  more  passages  from  Calvin. 

"  By  nature,  we  are  heirs  of  eternal  damnation,  because 
the  whole  human  race  was  cursed  in  Adam."  —  Adversus 
Franciscanum.     Tractt.  Theol.     0pp.  VIII.  403. 

"  We  do  not  say,  that  any  new  nature  was  transmitted 
to  us  by  Adam,  but  that  God  by  a  just  judgment  pronounced 
a  curse  upon  us  in  Adam,  and  willed  that  we,  on  account 
of  his  sin,  should  be  born  in  a  state  of  corruption  —  Novam 
ergo  naturam  nobis  ab  Adamo  traditam  esse  non  dicimus, 
sed  Deum  justo  judicio  nobis  in  ipso  maledixisse,  ac  volu- 
isse  nos,  ob  illius  peccatum,  corruptos  nasci.''''  —  Ibid. 
p.  405. 

"  I  acknowledge  this  to  be  my  doctrine,  that  not  merely 
by  the  permission  of  God,  but  by  his  secret  counsel, 
Adam  fell,   and    by  his  fall    drew    all   his    posterity  into 

eternal  ruin One  fell,  and  all  were  brought 

under  punishment ;  nor  this  alone  ;  through  the  sin  of  one 
all  receive  contagion,  and  are  born  corrupted,  and  infected 
with  a  deadly  taint.  What,  my  good  censor,  do  you  say 
to  this  }  Will  you  charge  God  with  cruelty,  because  he 
cast  down  all  his  offspring  to  destruction  through  the  fall 
of  one  man  .?  For  though  Adam  ruined  himself  and  his 
descendants,  yet  we  must  ascribe  the  corruption,  and  the 
state  of  guilt,  in  man,  to  the  secret  judgment  of  God  ;  for 
the  sin  of  one  man  would  have  been  nothing  to  us,  if  the 
heavenly  judge  had  not  condemned  us  to  eternal  destruc- 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  177 

tion."  —  Calumnice  Nehulonis  et  Calvini  Respons.,  Art.  I. 
Tractt.  Theol.     0pp.  VIII.  634. 

"  If  any  one  attack  us  with  such  an  inquiry  as  this,  why 
God  has  from  the  beginning  predestinated  some  men  to 
death,  who,  not  yet  being  brought  into  existence,  could  not 
deserve  the  sentence  of  death,  we,  by  way  of  answer,  will 
ask  them  *  in  return  what  they  suppose  God  owes  to  man, 
if  he  chooses  to  judge  him  conformably  to  man's  own  na- 
ture. As  we  are  all  corrupted  by  sin,  we  must  necessarily 
be  odious  to  God,  and  that  not  from  tyrannical  cruelty,  but 
according  to  the  most  equitable  rules  of  justice.  If  all 
whom  God  predestinates  to  death  are  in  their  natural 
condition  liable  to  the  sentence  of  death,  of  what  injustice 
to  themselves,  I  pray,  can  they  complain .?  Let  all  the 
sons  of  Adam  come  forward ;  let  them  contend  and  dis- 
pute with  their  Creator,  because,  by  his  eternal  providence, 
they  were,  before  their  birth,  adjudged  to  endless  misery. 
What  murmur  will  they  be  able  to  raise  against  this  vindi- 
cation, when  God  on  the  other  hand  shall  call  them  to  a  re- 
view of  themselves  ?  If  they  are  all  taken  from  a  corrupt 
mass,  it  is  no  wonder  if  they  all  lie  under  a  sentence  of 
damnation.  Let  them  not  therefore  accuse  God  of  injus- 
tice, if  by  his  eternal  decree  they  are  destined  to  death,  to 
which  they  feel  themselves  led  on  by  their  own  nature,  of 
itself,  whether  they  will  or  not  —  ad  quam  [mortem]  a  sua 
ipsorum  natura  sponte  se  perduci,  velint  nolint,  ipsi  senti- 
unty  —  Institut.  Lib.  III.  c.  23.  §  3. 

The  purpose  of  the  third  of  Edwards's  "  Fif- 
teen Sermons  "  is  to  prove,  that  men  are  natu- 
rally God's  enemies^  which  words  are  the  title 

*  So  in  the  original. 


178  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

of  the  sermon.  His  third  inference  is  :  "  From 
this  doctrine  you  may  learn  how  dreadful  the 
condition  of  natural  man  is";  that  is,  how 
dreadful  the  condition  of  men  is  as  created  by 
God;  they  are  by  their  very  nature  sinners, 
enemies  of  God,  children  of  wrath,  and  justly 
liable  to  infinite,  inconceivable  torments. 

In  his  sermon  entitled,  "  Sinners  in  the 
Hands  of  an  angry  God,"  he  says :  — 

"  So  that  thus  it  is,  that  natural  men  are  held  in  the 
hand  of  God  over  the  pit  of  hell ;  they  have  deserved  the 
fiery  pit,  and  are  already  sentenced  to  it;  and  God  is 
dreadfully  provoked,  his  anger  is  as  great  toward  them 
as  to  those  that  are  actually  suffering  the  executions  of  the 
fierceness  of  his  wrath  in  hell ; the  devil  is  wait- 
ing for  them,  hell  is  gaping  for  them,  the  flames  gather 
and  flash  about  them,  and  would  fain  lay  hold  on  them  and 
swallow  them  up."  —  Works,  VII.  493. 

Again,  from  the  same  sermon :  — 

"  They  are  now  the  objects  of  that  very  same  anger  and 
wrath  of  God,  that  is  expressed  in  the  torments  of  hell : 
and  the  reason  why  they  do  not  go  down  to  hell  at  each 
moment  is  not  because  God,  in  whose  power  they  are,  is 
not  then  very  angry  with  them ;  as  angry  as  he  is  with 
many  of  those  miserable  creatures  that  he  is  now  torment- 
ing in  hell,  and  do  there  feel  and  bear  the  fierceness  of  his 
wrath."  — JM.  p.  489. 

The  following  words  from  the  same  dis- 
course are  addressed  to  all  the  unregenerate,  — 


VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM.  179 

to  all  those  who  retain  the  nature  given  them 
by  God  at  their  birth,  not  having  been  born 
again,  in  the  Calvinistic  use  of  that  phrase. 

"  The  God  that  holds  you  over  the  pit  of  hell,  much  as 
one  holds  a  spider,  or  some  loathsome  insect,  over  the  fire, 
abhors  you,  and  is  dreadfully  provoked  ;  his  wrath  towards 
you  burns  like  fire ;  he  looks  upon  you  as  worthy  of  noth- 
ing else  but  to  be  cast  into  the  fire ;  he  is  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  bear  to  have  you  in  his  sight ;  you  are  ten  thousand 
times  so  abominable  in  his  eyes,  as  the  most  hateful  and 
venomous  serpent  is  in  ours."  —  Ihid.  p.  496. 

The  doctrine  that  all  human  beings  are 
brought  into  existence  with  natures  which 
make  them  proper  objects  of  divine  vengeance, 
when  it  is  extended  to  such  as  during  their 
being  here  have  manifestly  had  no  power  of 
doing  good  or  avoiding  evil,  —  that  is  to  say, 
when  extended  to  infants,  —  becomes,  though 
in  no  respect  more  repugnant  to  reason,  yet  so 
shocking  to  the  feelings,  that  some  who  have 
received  the  doctrine  in  the  gross  have  shrunk 
from  this  application  of  it.  But  on  this  sub- 
ject, as  might  be  supposed,  Calvin  was  consist- 
ent.    He  says :  — 

"Even  infants  bring  their  damnation  with  them  from 
their  mother's  womb  ;  for  although  they  have  not  yet  pro- 
duced the  fruits  of  their  iniquity,  they  have  the  seed  of  it 
inclosed  within  them.      Nay,  their  whole   nature  is,  as  it 


180  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

were,  a  seed  of  sin;  so  that  it  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
odious  and  abominable  to  God."  —  Institut.  Lib.  IV.  c.  15. 
§  10  ;  conf.  Lib.  11.  c.  1.  §  8. 

In  one  place  he  indignantly  disavows  the 
opposite  opinion. 

"  As  if  I  denied  that  the  whole  race  of  Adam  is,  by- 
nature,  under  a  curse,  so  that  even  infants  before  being 
born  to  light  are  liable  to  eternal  death."  —  Append.  Lib, 
de  vera  Eccles.  reform.  Ratione.  Tractt.  Theol.  0pp. 
VIIL  301. 

In  his  tract  "  On  the  Hidden  Providence  of 
God,"  in  answer  to  Castalio,  he  says :  — 

"  You  deny  that  it  is  lawful  for  God  to  damn  any  one 
unless  for  actual  transgression.  Innumerable  infants  are 
taken  from  life.  Put  forth  now  your  virulence  against  God, 
who  plunges  into  eternal  death  harmless  infants  {innoxios 
foetus)  torn  from  their  mothers'  breasts.  He  who  will  not 
detest  this  blasphemy  [the  blasphemy  of  Castalio  in  deny- 
ing it  to  be  lawful  for  God  so  to  deal  with  infants]  may  re- 
vile me  at  his  pleasure.  For  it  cannot  be  demanded  that  I 
should  be  safe  and  free  from  the  railings  of  those  who  do  not 
spare  God."  —  Tractt.  Theol     0pp.  VIII.  644. 

The  scheme  which  Calvin  maintained,  and 
to  which  his  name  has  been  given,  was  essen- 
tially coincident  with  that  of  his  predecessor 
Luther.  The  following  passage  is  from  Lu- 
ther's treatise  "  On  the  Servitude  of  the  Will " 
(^De  servo  Arhitrio). 

"  If  any  one  should  object,  that  it  is  difficult  to  defend 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  181 

the  mercy  and  justice  of  God,  inasmuch  as  he  condemns 
the  undeserving  (immeritos),  that  is,  those  who  are  impi- 
ous only  because  they  are  born  in  impiety,  and  have  no 
power,  in  any  way,  to  do  any  thing  to  save  themselves  from 
remaining  impious  and  being  condemned,  but  are  forced  by 
a  necessity  of  nature  to  sin  and  perish,  conformably  to 
what  Paul  says  :  '  We  were  all  children  of  wrath  like  oth- 
ers,' —  seeing  that  they  were  created  such  by  God  himself 
from  seed  corrupted  by  the  sin  of  one  man,  Adam  ;  — I  an- 
swer. That  we  must  honor  and  reverence  the  great  mercy 
of  God  toward  those  whom  he  justifies  and  saves,  though 
most  unworthy  ;  and  that  we  must  defer  something  at  least 
to  the  divine  wisdom,  so  as  to  believe  God  just,  when  he 
may  appear  to  us  unjust.  For  if  his  justice  were  such  that 
human  apprehension  might  perceive  it  to  be  just,  it  plainly 
would  not  be  divine,  and  would  differ  in  nothing  from  hu- 
man justice." —  0pp.  II.  fol.  485,  vo.     Witebergse,  1562. 

Dr.  Twiss  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  Cal- 
vinists  of  his  day,  the  Prolocutor  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly.  In  his  "  Vindication  of  the 
Grace,  Power,  and  Providence  of  God,"  he  puts 
forward  and  defends  this  aspect  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  doctrine.     In  one  passage  he  says :  — 

"  The  sin  of  Adam,  I  confess,  was  not  ours  as  perpetrat- 
ed by  us  in  our  proper  persons  ;  but  was  rather  the  sin  of 
our  nature  than  of  our  persons.  But  we  existed  even  then 
in  the  loins  of  Adam,  as  Levi  did  in  those  of  Abraham,  when 
the  latter  paid  tithes  to  Melchisedec  ;  and  his  sin  is  made 
ours  by  the  imputation  of  God  ;  so  that  it  has  exposed  in- 
numerable infants  to  Divine  w^ath,  who  were  guilty  of  this 
sin,  and  of  no  other."  — Lib.  III.  p.  21.  Ed.  2da.  4to. 
Amst.  1632. 

16 


182  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

This  being  but  a  particular  application  of  a, 
general  doctrine,  we  may  not  expect  to  find  it 
specifically  stated  in  Calvinistic  creeds  and 
catechisms.  In  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Confession  (Ch.  X.)  elect  infants  are  spoken  of 
in  contradistinction  from  others;  which  im- 
plies that  there  are  others  who  are  reprobate. 
But  in  works  intended  for  the  use  of  the  un- 
learned, the  wretched  condition  of  infants  has 
been  often  brought  into  view,  apparently  with 
the  purpose  of  producing  a  more  awful  impres- 
sion on  the  mind  of  the  reader.  Thus,  in  what 
was  one  of  the  most  popular  books  of  the  kind, 
Boston's  "  Human  Nature  in  its  Fourfold  State," 
the  author  says  :  — 

'•  Surely  we  are  not  bom  innocent.  These  chains  of 
wrath,  which  by  nature  are  upon  us,  speak  us  to  be  born 
criminals.  The  swaddling-bands  wherewith  infants  are 
bound  hand  and  foot,  as  soon  as  they  are  born,  may  put  us 
in  mmd  of  the  cords  of  wrath  with  which  they  are  held  pris- 
oners as  children  of  wrath."  —  p.  122.     Ed.  13th.     1763. 

Concerning  the  case  of  these  reprobates,  sin- 
ners before  being  moral  agents,  some  Calvinists 
have  been  inclined  to  think  that  their  future 
condition  would  not  be  worse  than  non-exist- 
ence.    But  this  supposition,  says  Edwards, 

"to  me  appears  plainly  a  giving  up  that  grand    point  of 
the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin,  both  in  whole  and  in  part. 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  183 

For  it  supposes  it  to  be  not  right  for  God  to  bring  any  evil 
on  a  child  of  Adam,  which  is  innocent  as  to  personal  sin, 
without  paying  for  it,  or  balancing  it  with  good  ;  so  that  still 
the  state  of  the  child  shall  be  as  good  as  could  be  demanded 
in  justice  in  case  of  mere  innocence.  Which  plainly  sup- 
poses that  the  child  is  not  exposed  to  any  proper  punish- 
ment at  all,  or  is  not  at  all'  in  debt  to  divine  justice  on  the 

account  of  Adam's  sin 

"  It  seems  to  me  pretty  manifest  that  none  can,  in  good 
consistence  with  themselves,  own  a  real  imputation  of  the 
guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin  to  his  posterity,  without  owning  that 
they  are  justly  viewed  and  treated  as  sinners,  truly  guilty 
and  children  of  wrath  on  that  account ;  nor  unless  they  al- 
low a  just  imputation  of  the  whole  of  the  evil  of  that  trans- 
gression ;  at  least,  all  that  pertains  to  the  essence  of  that  act, 
as  a  full  and  complete  violation  of  the  covenant  which  God 
had  established ;  even  as  much  as  if  each  one  of  mankind 
had  the  like  covenant  established  with  him  singly,  and  had 
by  the  like  direct  and  full  act  of  rebellion  violated  it  for  him- 
self."— Ow  Original  Sin,     Works,  VI.  462,  463. 

If,  indeed,  God  do  create  men  with  a  nature 
which  necessarily  makes  them  objects  of  his 
vengeance,  and  for  the  purpose  of  exercising 
this  vengeance  upon  them,  it  is  of  no  conse- 
quence whether  the  interval  between  their  cre- 
ation and  their  sufferings  be  longer  or  shorter, 
—  whether  he  keep  them  in  this  world  an  hour 
or  a  century.  If,  as  moral  agents,  they  can  do 
nothing  to  deliver  themselves  from  his  curse,  it 
is  of  no  consequence  whether  those  on  whom 
his  curse  is  inflicted  are  what  may  be  called 


184  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

moral  agents  or  not.  If  he  form  men  with 
moral  natures  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil,  under 
an  absolute  decree  of  reprobation,  he  might,  in 
equal  consistency  with  justice,  form  them  with 
such  natures  and  place  them  in  hell  at  once. 

In  many  of  the  preceding  passages  there  is  a 
reference  to  Adam,  as  having  some  agency  in 
causing  all  mankind  to  be  brought  into  the 
world  with  such  natures  as  have  been  described. 
He  has  been  interposed  to  shield  the  Creator 
from  any  imputation  of  injustice  or  cruelty. 

"  If  any  one,"  says  Calvin,  "  will  dispute  with  God,  and 
attempt  to  evade  his  judgment  by  this  pretext,  that  he  could 
not  hav^  acted  otherwise  than  he  has  done,  God  has  this  an- 
swer ready,  which  we  have  elsewhere  adduced,  that  it  arises 
not  from  the  creation,  but  from  the  corruption  of  human 
nature,  that  men  being  enslaved  to  sin  can  will  nothing  but 
what  is  evil.  For  whence  proceeds  that  impotence,  which 
the  wicked  are  so  ready  to  bring  forward  as  a  pretext,  but 
from  this,  that  Adam  voluntarily  devoted  himself  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Devil  ?  Hence  that  corruption  by  whose  chains 
we  are  held  bound  ;  because  the  first  man  revolted  from  his 
Maker.  If  all  men  are  justly  regarded  as  guilty  of  this  re- 
volt, let  them  not  think  themselves  excused  by  necessity." 
—  Institut.  Lib.  II.  c.  5.  ^  1. 

The  Calvinistic  doctrine  concerning  the  na- 
ture of  the  connection  between  Adam's  sin  and 
the  guilt  and  misery  of  mankind  is  not  well  set- 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  185 

tied.  Perhaps  the  most  common  account  of  it 
is  this :  —  Adam  is  represented  as  the  "  federal 
head  "  (to  borrow  a  term  from  the  language  of 
the  system)  of  the  whole  human  race,  consid- 
ered collectively.  With  him,  it  is  taught,  God 
entered  into  a  covenant,  the  terrible  penalties 
for  the  breach  of  which  were,  through  him  as  a 
"  public  person,"  incurred  equally  by  all  his  de- 
scendants as  by  himself  Thus  it  is  said  in  the 
Westminster  Assembly's  Larger  Catechism :  — 

"  The  covenant  being  made  with  Adam  as  a  public  per- 
son, not  for  himself  only,  but  for  his  posterity,  all  mankind 
descending  from  him  by  ordinary  generation  sinned  in  him, 
and  fell  with  him  in  that  first  transgression."  —  Ans.  22. 

Other  Calvinists  have  given  different  views, 
as,  for  example.  Dr.  Twiss,  in  the  passage  quot- 
ed from  him  on  p.  181 ;  and  Calvin  himself,  in 
the  passages  quoted  on  p.  176,  in  one  of  which 
he  says,  "  The  sin  of  one  man  would  have  been 
nothing  to  us,  if  the  Heavenly  Judge  had  not 
condemned  us  to  eternal  destruction." 

In  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England, 
nothing  is  affirmed,  except  negatively,  concern- 
ing the  relation  between  the  sin  of  Adam  and 
the  ruin  of  mankind.  The  ninth  Article,  "  On 
Original  Sin,"  teaches  as  follows :  — 

"  Original  Sin  standeth  not  in  the  following  of  Adam  (as 
the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk),  but  it  is  the  fault  or  corrup- 
16* 


186  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

tion  of  the  nature  of  every  man  that  naturally  is  engendered 
of  the  offspring  of  Adam,  whereby  man  is  very  far  gone 
from  original  righteousness,  and  is  of  his  own  nature  in- 
clined to  evil,  so  that  the  Flesh  lusteth  always  contrary  to 
the  Spirit,  and,  therefore,  in  every  person  bom  into  the 
world  it  deserveth  God's  wrath  and  damnation." 

As  there  can  be  no  guilt  in  being  bom,  it  fol- 
lows that  this  guilt  is  contracted  by  every  per- 
son before  his  birth.  It  is  implied  that  it  is  in 
some  way  connected  with  Adam,  but  in  what 
manner  it  is  so  connected  is  not  explained. 
The  birth  of  a  man  is  commonly  regarded  as 
the  commencement  of  his  existence,  at  least  of 
his  existence  as  a  moral  being ;  but,  notwith- 
standing this,  the  only  partial  solution  of  the 
problem  seems  to  be  that  before  quoted  from 
Dr.  Twiss,  that  when  Adam  sinned,  "  we  exist- 
ed even  then  in  his  loins,  as  Levi  did  in  those 
of  Abraham,  when  the  latter  paid  tithes  to  Mel- 
chisedec."  To  complete  this  solution  we  must 
add  another  idea,  —  that  we  existed  and  were 
consenting  to  his  sin. 

Perhaps  Calvin  has  nowhere  explained  his 
views  on  this  subject  more  fully  than  in  his 
Commentary  on  Ephesians  ii.  3.  The  words 
of  the  text,  as  they  stand  in  our  Common  Ver- 
sion, it  will  be  recollected,  are  these:  —  "We 
were  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even  as 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  187 

others."  *  Upon  this  text  Calvin  observes,  that 
by  "  children  of  wrath  "  is  meant  nothing  else 
than  "  ruined,  vrorthy  of  eternal  death  "  ;  that  it 
is  equivalent  to  "condemned  before  God,"  co- 
ram Deo  damnati.  It  is  a  remarkable  passage, 
he  says,  against  the  Pelagians.  "  Paul  bears 
testimony  that  we  are  born  with  sin,  as  serpents 
bring  their  poison  with  them  from  the  womb." 
"Where  there  is  condemnation,  there  must  of 
necessity  be  sin,  because  God  is  angry,  not  with 
innocent  men,  but  with  sin."  Upon  this,  he 
says,  a  question  may  arise :  "  How,  seeing  that 
God  is  the  author  of  nature,  he  can  be  without 
blame,  if  we  are  ruined  by  nature ] "  "I  an- 
swer," he  says,  "  that  there  are  two  kinds  of 
nature ;  the  first  was  originally  made  by  God, 
the  second  is  the  corruption  of  the  former. 
The  condemnation,  therefore,  of  which  Paul 
speaks,  by  no  means  flows  from  God,  but  from 

*  The  proper  meaning  of  these  words  I  conceive  to  be  this  :  — 
"  We  were  by  nature  as  much  exposed  to  punishment  as  the  rest 
of  men  "  ;  that  is,  we  Jewish  Christians  (of  whom  St.  Paul  is  here 
speaking,  in  contradistinction  from  the  Gentile  converts  whom  he  is 
addressing)  had  no  peculiar  claim  to  the  favor  of  God,  on  account 
of  our  natural  descent  from  Abraham  and  the  other  patriarchs. 
That  the  Jews  believed  they  had  a  special  right  to  the  favor  of 
God,  merely  on  this  ground,  appears  from  the  Scriptures,  the  Rab- 
binical writings,  and  other  sources  of  evidence.  This  opinion  is 
alluded  to  by  John  the  Baptist,  when  he  says,  "  Think  not  to 
say  to  yourselves,  We  have  Abraham  for  our  father." 


188  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

a  depraved  nature,  because  we  are  not  now 
born  as  Adam  was  created  in  the  beginning, 
but  are  an  adulterate  seed  from  a  degenerate 
and  corrupt  man." 

The  reasoning  of  Calvin  appears  to  be  this : 
—  God  created  Adam  with  a  nature  very  differ- 
ent from  ours ;  but  Adam  committed  a  great 
sin,  and  therefore  it  is  just  in  God  to  bring  us 
into  the  world  with  natures  that  necessarily 
make  us  objects  of  his  vengeance.  The  incon- 
sequence of  this  conclusion  is  rendered  a  little 
more  glaring  when  viewed  in  connection  with  an- 
other doctrine,  —  that  the  fall  of  Adam,  so  called, 
with  all  its  supposed  results,  was  foreordained 
by  God  and  the  necessary  effect  of  his  will. 

On  the  doctrine  just  referred  to,  the  doctrine 
of  "  God's  Decrees,"  as  it  is  called,  the  whole 
system  of  Calvinism  rests.  It  teaches  that  the 
character  and  condition  of  men  are  determined 
in  this  life,  and  through  eternity,  by  the  abso- 
lute decrees  of  God,  irrespectively  of  any  thing 
they  can  do  for  themselves.  Thus,  "  according 
to  his  sovereign  power  and  the  unsearchable 
counsel  of  his  own  will,"  he  has  determined 
that  the  reprobate  should  be  born  with  sinful 
natures,  that  they  should  for  ever  be  sinners, 
and  consequently  eternal  objects  of  his   ven- 


VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM.  189 

geance.  This  doctrine  annihilates  at  once  all 
those  evasions  of  the  truth,  those  imagined  me- 
liorations of  the  system,  which  have  been  sup- 
posed capable  of  reconciling  it  with  our  reason, 
if  not  with  our  moral  feelings. 

The  character  of  the  doctrine  appears  in  the 
following  passages. 

"  All  things,"  says  Calvin,  "  being  at  God's  disposal,  and 
the  decision  of  salvation  or  death  belonging  to  him,  he  or- 
ders all  things  by  his  counsel  and  decree  in  such  a  manner, 
that  some  men  are  born  devoted  from  the  womb  to  certain 
death  ;  that  his  name  may  be  glorified  in  their  destruction. 
If  any  one  should  pretend,  that  no  necessity  is  imposed  up- 
on them  by  the  foreknowledge  of  God,  but  rather  that  such 
is  the  condition  under  which  they  have  been  created,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  foreknowledge  of  their  future  depravity, 
he  will  say  what  is  partly  true,  but  not  the  whole  truth. 

If  God  merely  foresaw  the  fates  of  men,  and   did 

not  also  dispose  and  fix  them  by  his  determination,  there 
would  be  room  to  agitate  the  question,  whether  his  foresight 
rendered  them  at  all  necessary.  But,  since  he  foresees 
future  events  only  in  consequence  of  his  decree  that  they 
shall  take  place,  it  is  useless  to  dispute  about  the  proper 
inference  from  foreknowledge,  while  it  is  certain  that  all 
things  come  to  pass  by  ordination  and  decree."  —  Institut. 
Lib.  III.  c.  23.  §  6. 

In  answer  to  those  who  say  "  that  it  is  no- 
where declared  in  express  terms  that  God 
decreed  that  Adam  should  perish  by  his  defec- 
tion," Calvin  replies,  in  the  next  section  to  that 
just  quoted :  — 


190  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

"  But  predestination,  whether  they  will  or  not,  shows 
itself  in  his  posterity.  For  it  was  not  a  natural  conse- 
quence (neque  enim  factum  est  naturaliter)  that  all  men 
should  lose  salvation  through  the  guilt  of  their  first  parent. 
What  then  prevents  them  from  confessing  that  to  be  true  in 
relation  to  one  man,  which  they  reluctantly  concede  in  re- 
lation to  all  the  rest  of  mankind  ?  Why  should  they  waste 
time  in  sophistical  evasions  ?  The  Scripture  proclaims, 
that  all  men  were,  in  the  person  of  one,  given  over  to  eter- 
nal death.  As  this  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  natural  conse- 
quence (hoc  quum  naturce,  ascrihi  nequeat),  it  is  evident 
that  it  must  have  been  the  result  of  the  wonderful  counsel 
of  God.  That  these  pious  defenders  of  the  justice  of  God 
should  stick  at  trifles,  while  they  leap  over  great  difficulties, 
is  too  absurd.  Again,  I  ask.  How  has  it  come  to  pass,  that 
the  fall  of  Adam  has  involved  so  many  nations  with  their 
infant  children  in  eternal  death  without  remedy,  but  be- 
cause such  was  the  will  of  God  ? It  is  a  dreadful  de- 
cree, I  confess." 

Decretum  quidem  horrihile,  fateor.  Calvin 
was  not  given  to  human  relen tings,  and  the 
words  are  worth  preserving  as  a  matter  of  cu- 
riosity. 

"  The  reprobate,"  says  Calvin,  "  would  be  thought  excus- 
able in  sinning,  because  they  cannot  avoid  the  necessity 
of  sinning,  especially  as  this  necessity  is  imposed  upon 
them  by  the  ordinance  of  God.  But  we  deny  this  to  be  a 
just  excuse ;  since  the  ordinance  of  God,  by  which  they 
complain  that  they  are  destined  to  destruction,  is  conforma- 
ble to  equity,  unknown  indeed  to  us,  but  indubitably  cer- 
tain."—JHrf.  ^  9. 


VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM.  191 

I  have  observed  in  the  Introductory  Note, 
that  Calvin  regarded  with  contempt  the  subter- 
fuge which  has  been  resorted  to  by  some  of  his 
followers  in  saying,  that  "  every  one  may  be 
saved  if  he  will,"  that  "  men  transgress  and  suf- 
fer only  of  their  free  choice  "  ;  —  it  being  main- 
tained at  the  same  time,  that  "  man  by  hisTall 
hath  wholly  lost  all  ability  of  will  to  any  spirit- 
ual good  accompanying  salvation  "  ;  or,  as  the 
Church  of  England  expresses  it,  that  "  the  con- 
dition of  man  after  the  fall  of  Adam  is  such 
that  he  cannot  turn  and  prepare  himself  by  his 
own  natural  strength  and  good  works  to  faith 
and  calling  upon  God."  The  object  of  Calvin 
in  the  second  chapter  of  the  second  book  of 
his  Institutes,  as  stated  in  its  title,  is,  to  prove 
that  "  man  in  his  present  state  is  despoiled  of 
freedom  of  will,  and  subjected  to  a  miserable 
slavery."  He  quotes  and  opposes  the  opinions 
of  different  writers,  who  thought  that  freedom 
of  will  might  in  one  sense  or  another  be  as- 
cribed to  man,  and  finally  mentions  that  of  Pe- 
ter Lombard.  Lombard,  he  says,  "  decides  that 
our  will  is  free,  not  because  we  are  equally  able 
to  do  or  to  think  what  is  good  or  what  is  evil ; 
but  only  because  we  are  free  from  compulsion 
(coactione  soluti  sumus)\  which  liberty  may 
exist,  notwithstanding  we  are  corrupted,   and 


192  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

are  slaves  of  sin,  and  can  do  nothing  but  sin." 
Upon  which  Calvin  remarks :  — 

"  According  to  this,  man  will  be  said  to  possess  freedom 
of  will,  not  because  he  has  a  free  choice  equally  of  good 
and  evil,  but  because  he  does  evil  conformably  to  his  will 
and  not  by  compulsion.  This  is  very  true  ;  but  what  pur- 
pose was  to  be  answered  by  giving  so  proud  a  title  to  a 
thing  of  so  little  importance  ?  An  admirable  kind  of  lib- 
erty indeed,  if  man  be  under  no  compulsion  to  serve  sin, 
but  is  yet  such  a  willing  slave,  that  his  will  is  held  bound 
by  the  fetters  of  sin.  I  abominate  disputes  about  words,  by 
which  the  Church  is  disturbed  without  any  good  result ;  but 
I  think  we  ought  religiously  to  avoid  those  words  which  ap- 
pear to  express  an  absurdity  ;  especially  on  a  subject  re- 
specting which  there  are  pernicious  errors.  For  how  many 
are  there,  I  pray,  who,  when  they  hear  freedom  of  will  as- 
cribed to  man,  do  not  immediately  conceive  of  him  as 
master  of  his  own  mind  and  will,  so  as  to  be  able  of  himself 
to  turn  to  either  side  [either  good  or  evil]  ?  But  it  may 
be  said  that  this  danger  will  be  removed,  if  the  common 
people  are  carefully  informed  of  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  is  used.  This  is  not  true  ;  the  human  mind  is  of  it- 
self so  prone  to  false  opinions,  that  it  will  more  readily  im- 
bibe error  from  a  single  word,  than  truth  from  a  long  dis- 
course." —  §  7. 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  Calvin  concerning 
that  abuse  of  language  which  has  been  resorted 
to ;  and  so  far  was  he  from  asserting,  that  men 
"  transgress  and  suffer  only  of  their  free  choice." 

I  return  to  the  subject  of  the  Divine  Decrees. 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  193 

In  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Larger  Cate- 
chism, the  doctrine  concerning  them  is  thus 
stated :  — 

"  God's  decrees  are  the  wise,  free,  and  holy  acts  of  the 
counsel  of  his  will ;  whereby,  from  all  eternity,  he  hath,  for 
his  own  glory,  unchangeably  foreordained  whatsoever  comes 
to  pass  in  time  ;  especially  concerning  angels  and  men. 

"  God,  by  an  eternal  and  immutable  decree,  out  of  his 
mere  love,  for  the  praise  of  his  glorious  grace,  to  be  mani- 
fested in  due  time,  hath  elected  some  angels  to  glory,  and 
in  Christ  hath  chosen  some  men  to  eternal  life,  and  the 
means  thereof ;  and  also,  according  to  his  sovereign  power 
and  the  unsearchable  counsel  of  his  own  will  (whereby  he 
extendeth  or  withholdeth  favor  as  he  pleaseth),  hath  passed 
by,  and  foreordained  the  rest  to  dishonor  and  wrath,  to  be 
for  their  sin  inflicted,  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  jus- 
tice." —  Anss.  12,  13. 

The  following  is  from  Edwards's  "  Miscella- 
neous Observations  concerning  the  Divine  De- 
crees and  Election  "  :  — 

"  God  decrees  all  things,  and  even  all  sins God 

determines  the  limits  of  men's  lives If  the  limits  of 

men's  lives  are  determined,  men's  free  actions  must  be  de- 
termined, and  even  their  sins  ;  for  their  lives  often  depend 
on  such  acts."  —  Works,  V.  378,  379. 

The  purpose  of  God  in  creation,  and  in  his 
decrees  respecting  his  creatures,  is  thus  ex- 
plained by  Edwards :  — 

"  The  moral  rectitude  and  fitness  of  the  disposition,  in- 
17 


194  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

clination,  or  affection  of  God's  heart,  does  chiefly  consist  in 
a  respect  or  regard  to  himself,  infinitely  above  his  regard  to 
all  other  beings ;  or,  in  other  words,  his  holiness  consists  in 
this. 

"  And  if  it  be  thus  fit  that  God  should  have  a  supreme 
regard  to  himself,  then  it  is  fit  that  this  supreme  regard 
should  appear  in  those  things  by  which  he  makes  himself 
known,  or  by  his  word  and  works ;  i.  e.  in  what  he  says, 
and  in  what  he  does.  If  it  be  an  infinitely  amiable  thing  in 
God  that  he  should  have  a  supreme  regard  to  himself,  then 
it  is  an  amiable  thing  that  he  should  act  as  having  a  chief 
regard  to  himself." — Concerning  the  End  for  which  God 
created  the  World.     Works,  VI.  23,  24. 

Accordingly,  Edwards  undertakes  to  prove, 
that  "  God  manifests  a  supreme  and  ultimate 
regard  to  himself  in  all  his  works  "  ;  that  "  God's 
glory  is  an  ultimate  end  of  the  creation  " ;  and 
that  "  God  created  the  world  for  his  name,  to 
make  his  perfections  known,  and  that  he  made 
it  for  his  praise."  —  Ibid,  pp.  34,  68,  87. 

It  is  not  here  explained  how  God's  "  supreme 
regard  to  himself"  operates  to  produce  the  de- 
cree of  reprobation.  The  explanation  is  else- 
where given  by  Edwards.  This  decree  is  at 
once  "  to  glorify  his  justice"  and  to  show  forth 
"  his  mighty  power  "  as  manifested  in  inflicting 
vengeance  on  the  unconverted.  In  his  Sermon 
entitled  "  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry 
God  "  he  says,  addressing  the  unconverted :  — 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  195 

"  The  misery  you  are  exposed  to  is  that  which  God  will 
inflict  to  that  end,  that  he  might  show  what  that  wTath  of 
Jehovah  is.  God  hath  had  it  on  his  heart  to  show  to  angels 
and  men,  both  how  excellent  his  love  is,  and  also  how  terri- 
ble his  wrath  is.  Sometimes  earthly  kings  have  a  mind  to 
show  how  terrible  their  wrath  is,  by  the  extreme  punish- 
ments they  would  execute  on  those  that  provoke  them. 
Nebuchadnezzar,  that  mighty  and  haughty  monarch  of  the 
Chaldean  empire,  was  willing  to  show  his  wrath  when  en- 
raged with  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego ;  and  accord- 
ingly gave  order  that  the  burning  fiery  furnace  should  be 
heated  seven  times  hotter  than  it  was  before  ;  doubtless,  it 
was  raised  to  the  utmost  degree  of  fierceness  that  human  art 
could  raise  it ;  but  the  great  God  is  also  willing  to  show  his 
wrath,  and  magnify  his  awful  majesty  and  mighty  power  in 

the  extreme  sufl?erings  of  his  enemies And  seeing 

this  is  his  design,  and  what  he  has  determined,  to  show  how 
terrible  the  unmixed,  unrestrained  wrath,  the  fury,  and 
fierceness  of  Jehovah  is,  he  will  do  it  to  effect.  There  will 
be  something  accomplished  and  brought  to  pass  that  will  be 
dreadful  with  a  witness.  When  the  great  and  angry  God 
hath  risen  up  and  executed  his  awful  vengeance  on  the  poor 
sinner,  and  the  wretch  is  actually  suffering  the  infinite 
weight  and  power  of  his  indignation,  then  will  God  call  upon 
the  whole  universe  to  behold  that  awful  majesty  and  mighty 
power  that  is  to  be  seen  in  it 

"  Thus  it  will  be  with  you  that  are  in  an  unconverted 
state,  if  you  continue  in  it ;  the  infinite  might,  and  majesty, 
and  terribleness  of  the  Omnipotent  God  shall  be  magnified 
upon  you,  in  the  ineffable  strength  of  your  torments:  you 
shall  be  tormented  in  the  presence  of  the  holy  angels,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb ;  and  when  you  shall  be  in  this 
state  of  suffering,  the  glorious  inhabitants  of  heaven  shall  go 


196  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

forth  and  look  on  the  awful  spectacle,  that  they  may  see 
what  the  wrath  and  fierceness  of  the  Almighty  is  ;  and 
when  they  have  seen  it,  they  will  fall  down  and  adore  that 
great  power  and  majesty." —  Works,  VII.  499-501. 

Thus,  also,  according  to  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  the  reprobate,  that  is,  far  the  greater 
part  of  mankind,  are  ordained  to  sin  and  to 
suifer  eternal  torments,  "  for  the  glory  of  God's 
sovereign  power  over  his  creatures,"  and  "  to 
the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice." 

"  The  rest  of  mankind  [with  the  exception  of  the  elect] 
God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  unsearchable  counsel  of 
his  own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth  mercy, 
as  he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power  over  his 
creatures,  to  pass  by,  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and 
wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice."  — 
Westminster  Assemhly'^s  Confession.     Ch.  III.  §  7. 

No  explanation  is  given  either  by  the  West- 
minster Assembly  or  by  Edwards  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  decree,  of  reprobation  redounds  to 
the  praise  of  the  Divine  justice.  Some  Calvin- 
istic  writers,  not  contending  for  so  much  as  this, 
have  only  maintained  that  the  decree  is  recon- 
cilable with  any  idea  that  we  ought  to  form  of 
justice  as  ascribed  to  God. 

Thus  Dr.  Twiss,  in  his  work  before  quoted, 
speaking  of  the  reprobation  of  infants,  ob- 
serves :  — 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  197 

"  These  judgments  of  God  are  tremendous,  I  confess,  but 
just ;  nor  are  they  to  be  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  hu- 
man wisdom  and  justice,  or  examined  and  discussed  by 
the  rules  of  our  reason  and  equity.  Especially  as  it  is  law- 
ful for  God  the  Creator  to  treat  a  creature,  however  inno- 
cent (quantumvis  immerentem)^  in  whatever  manner  he 
pleases,  whether  it  seem  good  to  God  to  annihilate  him,  or 
to  inflict  upon  him  any  torture  whatever."  — Lib.  III.  p.  21. 

In  his  second  book  he  has  a  digression  to 
prove  that  "  God  may  afflict  or  torment  an  in- 
nocent creature  at  pleasure  "  :  —  Probatur  posse 
Deum  creaturam  immerentem  affligere^  seu  pro 
lihito  cruciare.  In  maintaining  this  proposi- 
tion, he  affirms  that 

"  There  is  no  such  thing  in  God  as  justice,  propetly  so 
called,  in  respect  to  his  creatures,  that  is  to  say,  by  which 
he  is  bound  in  respect  to  them." 

"  I  acknowledge,"  he  says,  "  no  other  justice  in  God, 
than  that  by  which  he  wisely  orders  all  things  to  effect  his 
own  purposes."  —  Lib.  II.  pp.  15,  16. 

The  same  doctrine  was  maintained  by  the 
learned  Theophilus  Gale,  the  author  of  a  book 
once  famous,  "  The  Court  of  the  Gentiles,"  in 
which  he  says :  — 

"  So  great  is  the  Majestie  of  God,  and  so  Absolute  his  Do- 
minion, as  that  he  is  obnoxious  to  no  Laws,  Obligations,  or 
Ties  from  his  Creature  :  this  Absolute  Justice  or  Dominion 
regards  not  any  qualities  or  conditions  of  its  object ;  but 
God  can  by  virtue  hereof  inflict  the  highest  torments  on  his 
17* 


198  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

innocent  creature,  and  exempt  from  punishment  the  most 
nocent.  By  this  Absolute  Justice  and  Dominion  God  can 
inflict  the  greatest  torments,  even  of  Hel  it  self,  on  the  most 
innocent  creature."  —  Part  IV.  p.  367. 

The  unspeakable  misery  which  the  justice  of 
God  may  inflict  on  the  most  innocent  creature, 
and  which  he  is  supposed  to  inflict  on  those 
who  have  never  offended  against  him  except 
through  an  inevitable  necessity  imposed  by 
himself,  consists,  as  we  have  seen,  according  to 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  in  "  most  grievous 
torments  in  soul  and  body,  without  intermission, 
in  hell-fire  for  ever."  On  this  subject  the  im- 
agination of  Edwards  runs  riot.  In  his  Ser- 
mon entitled  "  Men  naturally  God's  Enemies," 
is  the  following  address,  —  utterly  illogical,  as 
men  can  do  nothing  to  help  themselves,  and 
one  which,  if  it  were  not  clear  that  the  writer 
had  obstinately  shut  his  eyes  to  this  fundamen- 
tal article  of  his  faith,  would  be  savagely  in- 
sulting. 

"  If  you  continue  God's  enemy  until  death,  you  will  al- 
ways be  his  enemy.  And  after  death  your  enmity  will  have 
no  restraint,  but  it  will  break  out,  and  rage  without  control. 
When  you  come  to  be  a  firebrand  of  hell,  you  will  be  a  fire- 
brand in  two  respects ;  viz.  as  you  will  be  all  on  fire,  full 
of  the  fire  of  God's  wrath  :  and  also  as  you  will  be  all  on 
a  blaze  with  spite  and  malice  towards  God.     You  will  be  as 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  199 

full  of  the  fire  of  malice,  as  you  will  with  the  fire  of  Divine 
vengeance  ;  and  both  will  make  you  full  of  torment.  Then 
you  will  appear  as  you  are,  a  viper  indeed.  You  are  now 
a  viper,  but  under  great  disguise ;  a  wolf  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing; but  then  your  mask  will  be  pulled  off;  you  shall  lose 
your  garments  and  walk  naked.  Rev.  xvi.  15.  Then  will 
you  as  a  serpent  spit  poison  at  God,  and  vent  your  rage  and 
malice  in  fearful  blasphemies.  Out  of  that  mouth,  out  of 
which,  when  you  open  it,  will  proceed  flames,  will  also  pro- 
ceed dreadful  blasphemies  against  God.  That  same  tongue, 
to  cool  which  you  will  wish  for  a  drop  of  water,  will  be  eter- 
nally employed  in  cursing  and  blaspheming  God  and  Christ." 
—  Works,  VII.  198. 

I  will  venture  to  quote  a  few  more  sentences, 
relating  to  the  same  subject,  from  another  pas- 
sage of  Edwards.  I  quote  them,  however,  prin- 
cipally for  the  purpose  of  still  further  showing 
what  conceptions  Calvinism  teaches  men  to 
form  of  God.  The  passage  referred  to  is  in  his 
Sermon  entitled  "  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an 
Angry  God." 

"  The  wrath  of  kings  is  very  much  dreaded,  especially  of 
absolute  monarchs,  that  have  the  possessions  and  lives  of 
their  subjects  wholly  in  their  power,  to  be  disposed  of  at 
their  mere  will The  subject  that  very  much  en- 
rages an  arbitrary  prince  is  liable  to  suffer  the  most  ex- 
treme torments  that  human  art  can  invent,  or  human  power 

can  inflict The  wrath  of  the  great  King  of  kings 

is  as  much  more  terrible  than  theirs,  as  his  majesty  is 
greater 

"  It  is  the  fierceness  of  his  wrath  that  you  are  exposed  to. 


200  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

We  often  read  of  the  fury  of  God  ;    as  in  Isaiah  lix.  17. 

So  we  read  of  God's  fierceness.     Rev.  xix.   15. 

There  we  read  of  '  the  wine-press  of  the  fierceness  and 
wrath  of  Almighty  God.'  The  words  are  exceedingly  ter- 
rible. If  it  had  only  been  said,  'the  wrath  of  God,'  the 
words  would  have  implied  that  which  is  infinitely  dreadful : 
but  it  is  not  only  said  so,  but  '  the  fierceness  and  wrath  of 
God.'  The  fury  of  God!  the  fierceness  of  Jehovah!  O, 
how  dreadful  must  that  be  !  Who  can  utter  or  conceive 
what  such  expressions  carry  in  them  !  But  it  is  not  only 
said  so,  but  '  the  fierceness  and  wrath  of  Almighty  God.' 
As  though  there  would  be  a  very  great  manifestation  of  his 
almighty  power  in  what  the  fierceness  of  his  wrath  should 
inflict,  as  though  omnipotence  should  be  as  it  were  enraged, 
and  exerted  as  men  were  wont  to  exert  their  strength  in  the 

fierceness  of  their  wrath 

"  How  awful  are  those  words,  Isaiah  Ixiii.  3,  which  are 
the  words  of  the  great  God.  '  I  will  tread  them  in  mine  an- 
ger, and  trample  them  in  my  fury,  and  their  blood  shall  be 
sprinkled  upon  my  garments,  and  I  will  stain  all  my  rai- 
ment.' It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  conceive  of  words  that 
carry  in  them  greater  manifestations  of  these  three  things, 
viz.  contempt,  and  hatred,  and  fierceness  of  indignation. 
If  you  cry  to  God  to  pity  you,  he  will  be  so  far  from  pitying 
you  in  your  doleful  case,  or  showing  you  the  least  regard  or 
favor,  that,  instead  of  that,  he  will  only  tread  you  under  foot : 
and  though  he  will  know  that  you  cannot  bear  the  weight 
of  omnipotence  treading  upon  you,  yet  he  will  not  regard 
that,  but  he  will  crush  you  under  his  feet  without  mercy ; 
he  will  crush  out  your  blood,  and  make  it  fly,  and  it  shall  be 
sprinkled  on  his  garments,  so  as  to  stain  all  his  raiment. 
He  will  not  only  hate  you,  but  he  will  have  you  in  the  ut- 
most contempt ;  no  place  shall  be  thought  fit  for  you,  but 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  201 

under  his   feet  to  be   trodden  down  as  the  mire  of  the 
streets."  —  Works,  VII.  497-499. 

Such  is  the  inconsistence  often  found  in 
men's  characters,  that,  perhaps,  one  would  not 
be  justified  in  inferring  from  the  passages  I  have 
quoted  from  Edwards,  that  he  was  wholly  des- 
titute of  right  conceptions  of  God,  of  proper 
affections  towards  Him,  and  of  commiseration 
for  the  sufferings  of  his  fellow-creatures.  In 
respect  to  such  commiseration,  however,  it 
could  not  be  reasonably  felt,  in  accordance  with 
the  scheme  of  religion  which  he  adopted  and 
defended.  The  vast  amount  of  misery  on  which 
he  expatiates  as  about  to  be  inflicted  on  his 
fellow-men  was,  conformably  to  that  scheme, 
only  a  manifestation  of  the  "  infinite  amiable- 
ness"  of  God  in  "his  supreme  regard  to  him- 
self" *  To  look  on  such  a  manifestation  with 
horror  would  be  in  a  high  degree  sinful.  For 
one  of  the  chosen  to  regard  it  with  any  feeling 
but  satisfaction,  can  be  only  the  result  of  some 
remaining  weakness  of  the  natural  man.  It  is 
taught  by  Edwards,  in  common  with  many 
other  Calvinistic  writers,  that,  in  that  holier 
state  to  which  "  the  saints  "  are  advancing,  the 
sight  of  the  tortures  which  he  describes  will  be 

*  See  before,  p.  194. 


202  VIEWS  OP  CALVINISM. 

ia  subject  of  self-gratulation,  exalting  their  hap- 
piness, and  giving  them  a  new  sense  of  God's 
goodness.  The  main  purpose  in  the  infliction 
of  these  tortures  on  the  subjects  of  the  decree  of 
reprobation  is  represented  to  be,  "  that  the 
name  of  God  may  be  glorified  in  their  destruc- 
tion." But  besides  this  there  is  another  pur- 
pose, which  is  thus  explained  by  Edwards :  — 

"  The  sight  of  hell  torments  will  exalt  the  happiness  of 
the  saints  for  ever.  It  will  not  only  make  them  more  sensi- 
ble of  the  greatness  and  freeness  of  the  grace  of  God  in 
their  happiness ;  but  it  will  really  make  their  happiness  the 
greater,  as  it  will  make  them  more  sensible  of  their  own 
happiness  ;  it  will  give  them  a  more  lively  relish  of  it ;  it 
will  make  them  prize  it  more.  When  they  see  others,  who 
were  of  the  same  nature,  and  born  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, plunged  in  such  misery,  and  they  so  distinguished, 
O,  it  will  make  them  sensible  how  happy  they  are.  A  sense 
of  the  opposite  misery,  in  all  cases,  greatly  increases  the 
relish  of  any  joy  or  pleasure." —  Sermon  on  the  Eternity 
of  Hell  Torments.     Works,  VII.  415. 

To  finish  the  exposition  proposed  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Calvinism,  it  only  remains  to  show 
that  it  teaches  "that  the  number  of  those 
saved  out  of  the  common  ruin  of  mankind  is 
comparatively  small." 

So  Calvin  says :  — 

"  Indeed  it  is  not  wonderful,  that  they  who  are  born  in 
darkness  harden  themselves  more  and  more  in  their  stupid- 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  203 

ity,  because  very  few  (paucissimi)^  that  they  may  restrain 
themselves  within  bounds,  attend  with  docility  to  the  word 
of  God  ;  but  they  rather  exult  in  their  own  vanity."  — 
Institut.  Lib.  L  c.  6.  §  2. 

In  commenting  upon  the  words  in  the  prayer 
of  our  Saviour,  John  xvii.  9,  he  says :  — 

"  Hence  it  appears  that  the  whole  world  does  not  belong 
to  its  Creator  ;  only  that  grace  snatches  from  the  curse  and 
wrath  of  God  and  from  eternal  death  a  few,  who  would 
otherwise  perish  ;  but  leaves  the  world  in  the  ruin  to  which 
it  has  been  ordained."  * 

In  commenting  on  the  invitation  of  our  Lord, 
"  Come  to  me  all  ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy 
laden,"  he  remarks  :  — 

"  All  [who  accept  this  invitation]  are  few  in  number ; 
because,  out  of  the  innumerable  multitude  of  those  who  are 
perishing,  but  few  perceive  that  they  are  perishing."  — 
Comment,  in  Harm.  Evang.    0pp.  VI.  131. 

In  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Larger  Cate- 
chism we  are  told :  — 

"  They  who,  having  never  heard  the  gospel,  know  not  Je- 
sus Christ,  and  believe  not  in  him,  cannot  be  saved ;  be  they 
never  so  diligent  to  frame  their  lives  according  to  the  light 

*  The  words  of  this  extraordinary  passage  deserve  to  be  given 
in  the  original :  —  "  Unde  fit  ut  totus  mundus  ad  suum  creatorem 
non  pertineat ;  nisi  quod  a  maledictione  et  ira  Dei,  ac  morte  aeterna 
non  multos  eripit  gratia,  qui  alioqui  perituri  erant ;  mundum  autem 
in  suo  interitu,  cui  destinatus  est,  relinquit."  —  Institut.  Lib.  III. 
G.  22.  §  7. 


204  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

of  nature,  or  the  law  of  that  religion  which  they  profess ; 
neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other,  but  in  Christ  alone, 
who  is  the  Saviour  only  of  his  body,  the  Church." 

'•  The  visible  Church  is  a  society  made  up  of  all  such  as 
in  all  ages  and  places  of  the  world  do  profess  the  true  relig- 
ion, and  of  their  children."     But 

"  All  that  hear  the  gospel  and  live  in  the  visible  Church 
are  not  saved."  —  Anss.  60  -  62. 

It  is  evident  that  according  to  the  Westmin- 
ster Assembly  the  number  of  the  reprobate  far 
exceeds  that  of  the  elect. 

The  following  is  from  Edwards  :  — 

"  That  there  are  generally  but  few  good  men  in  the 
world,  even  among  them  that  have  those  most  distinguish- 
ing and  glorious  advantages  for  it  which  they  are  favored 
with  that  live  under  the  gospel,  is  evident  by  that  saying 
of  our  Lord,  from  time  to  time  in  his  mouth.  Many  are 
called^  hut  few  are  chosen.  And  if  there  are  but  few 
among  these,  how  hw^  how  very  few  indeed,  must  persons 
of  this  character  be,  compared  with  the  whole  world  of 
mankind  ?  The  exceeding  smallness  of  the  number  of  true 
saints,  compared  with  the  whole  world,  appears  by  the  rep- 
resentations often  made  of  them  as  distinguished  from  the 
world."—  On  Original  Sin.     Works,  VI.  190. 

"  If,"  he  says,."  we  observe  the  history  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, there  is  reason  to  think  there  never  was  any  time,  • 
from  Joshua  to  the  Captivity,  wherein  wickedness  was  more 
restrained,  and  virtue  and  religion  more  encouraged  and 
promoted,  than  in  David's  and  Solomon's  times.  And  if 
there  was  so  little  true  piety  in  that  nation  that  was  the  only 
people  of  God  under  heaven,  even  in  their  very  best  times, 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  205 

what  may  we  suppose  concerning  the  world  in  general,  take 
one  time  with  another  ?  "  —  Ibid.  p.  192. 


As   I   have   mentioned  in  the   Introductory- 
Note,  what  precedes  comprises    the   substance 
of  an  article  formerly  published.     My  primary 
purpose  in  that  article  being  to  vindicate  my- 
self from  the  charge  of  misrepresenting  the  doc- 
trines  of  Calvinism,  I  did  not  add  to  it   any 
general  remarks   on  the  view   given  of  those 
doctrines.     But   such   an    exhibition   suggests 
many   thoughts,    to   which   it   may    be    worth 
while  to  attend.     It  is  not  to  be  turned  away 
from,  as  something  too  revolting  to  be  steadily 
contemplated,  or  with  any  indistinct  incredu- 
lity  concerning   the   fact  that   such   doctrines 
have  been  believed.     It  is  to  be  regarded  more 
calmly,  as  a  great  lesson  in  the  study  of  human 
nature,  —  a   melancholy  lesson   certainly,    but 
one  full  of  instruction. 

We  must,  in  the  first  place,  distinctly  recog- 
nize the  truth,  that  what  is  essential  in  the 
system  has  been  believed,  in  the  proper  sense  of 
the  term,  and  very  extensively  believed.  It  is 
not  with  these  as  with  some  other  doctrines  of 
false  religion,  which  those  who  profess  them 
deceive  themselves  in  thinking  that  they  be- 

18 


206  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

lieve.     I  refer  to  doctrines  which  predicate  of 
the  same  subject  conceptions  contradictory  to 
each  other,  so  that  it  is  as  impossible  for  any 
mind,  understanding  the  meaning  of  the  words, 
to  receive  them  as  true,  as  it  would  be  to  be- 
lieve the  proposition,  that  a  certain  object  is  a 
triangle  whose  three  angles  form  only  one  an- 
gle, or  that  a  block  of  wood  may  be  converted 
into  a  mass  of  gold  without  any  change  of  its 
sensible   properties.      The   doctrines   we   have 
been   attending   to  involve,  in  their   essential 
character,  no  such  obvious  verbal  absurdity.     It 
is  not  an  absurdity  in  terms,  to  affirm  that  God 
(meaning  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  All  Things)  is 
a  malignant  being,  and  that  he  forms  many  of 
his  creatures  with  such  natures  as  necessarily 
cause  their  eternal  misery.     When,  indeed,  it 
is  affirmed  that  his  justice  requires  or  admits 
the  infliction  on  men,  of  punishment  for  sins 
which   he   has   laid   them    under  an   irresisti- 
ble necessity  of  committing,  the  proposition  is 
a  verbal  absurdity,  which  can  be  veiled  only  by 
asserting,  that  the  human  mind  is  incapable  of 
forming  a  right  conception  of  the  nature  of  ab- 
solute  or   perfect  justice,  and  that  the   word 
"justice  "  is  used  in  some  unknown  sense.     But 
such  propositions  are  not  essential  to  the  sys- 
tem.    Without  reference  to  them,  the  acts  as- 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  20T 

cribed  to  God,  and  the  supposed  nature  and 
destiny  of  man,  are  stated  in  language  perfectly 
intelligible. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  there  is  nothing  so 
repulsive  to  reason,  or  so  revolting  to  our  moral 
feelings,  that  it  may  not  be  received  as  a  doc- 
trine of  Christianity.  If  we  look  abroad,  be- 
yond the  confines  of  Christianity,  to  the  past 
history  and  present  state  of  the  world,  we  shall 
find  that  it  is  on  the  subject  of  religion  that  the 
most  portentous  and  pernicious  errors  have 
prevailed,  —  errors  of  superstition  and  errors 
of  virtual  atheism,  —  on  the  one  hand,  concept 
tions  of  the  spiritual  world  disastrously  false, 
and,  on  the  other,  an  abnegation  of  all  but  what 
is  present  and  material. 

The  opinions  of  men  accustomed  to  think  for 
themselves,  especially  their  opinions  on  subjects 
of  the  highest  interest,  are  professedly  founded 
on  reason,  or,  at  least,  claim  to  be  in  accordance 
with  reason.  It  would  be  admitting  a  self-con- 
tradictory proposition,  for  any-  one  to  admit  his 
belief  to  be  unreasonable.  But  notwithstand- 
ing the  presumption  thus  created,  that  reason 

has  had  much  to  do  in  the  formation  of  men's 

• 

religious  opinions,  yet  we  know  that  such  an 
inference  would  be  false.  When  men  are  spo- 
ken of,  and  we  discourse  of  human  nature,  we 


208  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

are  apt  to  direct  our  thoughts  to  some  particu- 
lar, small  class  of  men,  perhaps  the  most  intel- 
ligent of  those  with  whom  we  are  acquainted ; 
or  to  form  some  abstract  notion  of  the  capaci- 
ties of  human  nature,  and  to  imagine  those 
capacities  as  being  actually  exercised  as  they 
should  be.  But  we  ought  to  extend  our  view 
to  the  human  race,  and  to  consider  what  men 
really  are,  and  what  they  have  been. 

If  we  divide  those  now  living  out  of  the  lim- 
its of  Christendom  into  classes  with  reference 
to  their  ostensible  or  nominal  opinions  respect- 
ing the  greatest  and  most  important  subject  of 
thought,  religion,  we  find  that  the  largest 
of  the  several  divisions  thus  made  consists  of 
the  professed  disciples  of  some  form  or  other 
of  Buddhism,  a  religion  of  the  history  and 
character  of  which  very  little  is  known  in  the 
Western  world  beyond  a  small  circle  of  the 
learned;  while,  from  what  is  known,  it  may 
fairly  be  inferred  that  it  is  little  comprehended 
in  any  of  its  forms  by  the  generality  of  its 
professors.  Then  come,  as  the  next  class,  the 
Hindus,  with  their  monstrous  mythology  and 
all-pervading  superstitions.  The.  division  next 
in  size  consists  of  the  followers  of  Mahomet. 
We  may  then  notice  the  disciples  of  Confucius, 
whose  nearest  approach  toward  recognizing  the 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  209 

connection  between  the  inhabitants  of  this 
earth  and  the  spiritual  Universe  consists  in  the 
rites  performed  at  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors. 
And  finally  we  may  turn  to  a  great  miscellane- 
ous multitude  of  various  superstitions  and  idol- 
atries, into  which  any  proper  religious  belief  or 
sentiment  rarely  enters  as  an  element.  These 
classes  constitute  a  great  majority  of  mankind. 

Among  them  we  cannot  look  for  a  religious 
faith  resting  on  reason.  The  opinions  of  the 
majority  of  mankind  on  the  most  important  of 
subjects  are  not  the  result  of  investigation  and 
thought  and  intelligent  conviction.  Nor  have 
they  been  in  any  other  way,  by  any  natural  in- 
stinct or  perception,  guided  to  the  truth.  Their 
errors  and  superstitions,  however  they  origi- 
nated, are  now  received  because  they  are  tradi- 
tionary. The  belief  of  them  has  been  incorpo- 
rated with  their  minds  at  that  period  when 
whatever  is  taught  is  received  as  true,  and  has 
been  strengthened  by  all  surrounding  circum- 
stances in  after  life.  It  has  not  even  occurred 
to  one  in  many  thousands  to  subject  them  to 
the  test  of  reason;  and  the  doubts  of  a  very 
few  thinkers  among  nations  not  Christianized 
have,  with  very  rare  exceptions,  such  as  that 
of  the  eminent  Hindu  reformer  of  our  own 
day,  led  to  nothing  but  unbelief,  or,  as  in  the 

18* 


210  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

case  of  the  Mahometan  Sufis,  to  vague,  unintel- 
ligible mysticism. 

If  rational  religion  —  correct  views  of  God 
and  his  providence,  of  man  and  his  destiny  — 
is  to  be  found  anywhere,  it  is  in  the  Christian 
world.  To  this,  then,  we  turn ;  and  we  per- 
ceive at  once,  that  Christians  are  divided  into 
distinct  parties,  and  that,  if  any  one  of  these 
parties  holds  a  rational  faith,  the  faith  of  most 
other  Christians  must  be  very  erroneous.  By 
far  the  greater  part  of  those  numbered  as 
Christians  is  composed  of  the  professed  or  nom- 
inal members  either  of  the  Romish  or  of  the 
Greek  Church,  —  the  Greek  being  allied  to  the 
Homish  in  all  that  is  essential  except  in  ac- 
knowledging the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  In- 
telligent Protestants  regard  the  doctrines  of 
either  Church  as  a  mass  of  gross  errors,  accu- 
mulated and  consolidated  during  centuries  of 
ignorance  and  superstition.  But  where  there 
is  any  doubt  or  controversy,  men  must  be  ad- 
dressed as  rational  beings ;  and  neither  the 
Homish  nor  the  Greek  Church,  therefore,  re- 
fuses to  acknowledge  the  existence  and  jurisdic- 
tion of  reason.  But  the  appeal  made  to  her  by 
them  is  for  an  act  of  self-immolation,  —  to  sac- 
rifice herself  to  the  authority  of  the  Church. 
Reason  is  called  upon  to  acknowledge,  that,  as 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  211 

regards  all  which  is  further  to  be  done  or  be- 
lieved, her  decisions  are  of  no  value.  What 
appears  to  her  a  pernicious  error,  a  folly,  or  an 
absurdity,  may  be  a  sublime  and  momentous 
truth.  Having  made  the  submission  required, 
her  office  ceases.  She  passes  out  of  her  prov- 
ince, and  becomes  guilty  of  impiety,  if  she  med- 
dles further  with  doctrines  which  she  ought 
humbly  to  receive.  She  must  at  once  admit  as 
true  all  that  is  taught  by  the  Church,  that  is, 
by  the  priesthood. 

If,  then,  such  a  religion  as  reason  can  assent 
to,  exist  among  men,  if  there  be  anywhere  a 
correct  conception  of  those  truths  which  God 
taught  us  by  his  revelation  of  himself  through 
Christ,  if  there  be  anywhere  a  system  which, 
containing  the  profession  of  those  truths,  does 
not  contradict  and  neutralize  them  by  incorpo- 
rating with  this  profession  the  inculcation  of 
opposite  errors,  it  would  seem  that  this  system 
is  to  be  sought  for  among  the  comparatively 
small  body  of  Protestants.  In  vindicating  their 
dissent  they  were  compelled  to  appeal  to  rea- 
son. Bat  the  scheme  of  doctrines  originally 
maintained  by  a  great  majority  of  those  who, 
during  the  time  of  the  Eeformation,  separated 
from  the  Church  of  Rome,  has  just  been  pre- 
sented to  view.     This  scheme  in  its  original 


212  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

form,  or  not  essentially  modified,  though  some- 
times a  little  disguised  (as  in  the  Articles  of 
the  Church  of  England),  is  still  the  professed 
faith  of  the  majority  of  Protestants,  —  professed 
in  their  creeds,  whatever  may  be  their  real 
belief  or  unbelief.  Most  Protestant  churches 
and  sects  likewise  claim  virtually  the  same 
control  over  reason  as  the  Eomish  Church. 
Our  carnal  reason,  as  it  is  called,  must  abase 
itself  before  the  incomprehensible  mysteries  of 
their  faith.  Men  should  follow  the  directions 
that  were  given  to  the  late  Dr.  Arnold  when 
his  understanding  was  struggling  with  the  doc- 
trines to  which  his  assent  was  required,  —  "  to 
pause  in  his  inquiries,"  and  "  to  put  down  ob- 
jections by  main  force  whenever  they  arose  in 
his  mind."  *  Such  directions  do  not  furnish  a 
stable  foundation  for  a  firm  and  rational  faith, 
though  they  do  furnish  a  sufficient  foundation 
for  bigoted  ignorance. 

But  furthermore,  it  is  expressly  contended 
by  a  large  portion  of  Protestants,  and  by  others 
who  desire  to  be  considered  as  believers  in  the 
divine  authority  of  Christ,  that  Christian  faith 
is  not  founded  on  reason.  It  is,  according  to 
Calvin,  a  special  gift  of  God,  granted  only  to 

*  Life  of  Dr.  Arnold,  4th  Ed.  Vol.  I.  pp.  21,  22. 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  213 

the  regenerate.  "  There  are  manifest  signs,"  he 
says,  "  that  God  speaks  in  the  Scriptures,  from 
which  it  appears  that  their  doctrine  is  from 
Heaven " ;  but  these  signs  are  not  to  be  dis- 
cerned by  the  unregenerate ;  "  his  word  will 
not  find  faith  in  the  hearts  of  men  before  it 
is  sealed  by  the  inward  witness  of  the  Spirit." 
"  They  act  preposterously  who  endeavor  to  es- 
tablish a  firm  faith  in  Scripture  by  disputing''  * 
"Profane  men,  that  they  may  not  believe  any 
thing  foolishly  or  lightly,  desire  and  demand 
that  it  should  be  proved  to  them  by  reason, 
that  Moses  and  the  Prophets  spoke  by  divine 
inspiration.  But  I  answer,  that  the  testimony 
of  the  Spirit  is  more  excellent  than  all  rea- 
son." t 

In  commenting  on  the  often  perverted  words 
of  St.  Paul,  which  are  rendered  in  the  Common 
Version,  "  The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  for  they  are  fool- 
ishness unto  him ;  neither  can  he  know  them, 
because  they  are  spiritually  discerned,"  %  Cal- 


•  Disputando.  The  word  is  italicized  in  the  original,  from  which 
I  think  it  must  be  inferred  that  Calvin  meant  to  use  it  in  an  invidi- 
ous, associated  sense,  which  is  uncommon,  to  say  the  least,  in  good 
Latin.  If  he  did  not,  it  should  be  rendered  "  by  arguing,"  or  "  by 
argument." 

f  Insiitut.  Lib.  I.  c.  7.  §  4.  |  1  Corinthians  ii.  14. 


214  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

vin  says  :  —  "  The  Apostle  teaches  that  the  Gos- 
pel is  contemned  because  it  is  unknown ;  and 
that  it  is  unknown  because  it  is  too  hidden 
and  sublime  to  be  apprehended  by  the  human 
mind,  —  such  wisdom  as  so  far  surpasses  the 
whole  intelligence  of  man  that  he  cannot  get 
even  a  taste  of  it.  For  though  Paul  here  tacit- 
ly accuses  the  pride  of  the  flesh,  in  that  men 
dare  to  condemn  as  foolish  what  they  do  not 
understand,  he  at  the  same  time  shows  how 
great  is  the  weakness,  or  rather  stupidity,  of  the 
human  mind,  in  denying  it  to  be  capable  of  spir- 
itual intelligence.  For  he  teaches,  that  it  is  not 
merely  through  the  perversity  of  the  human 
will,  that  man,  considered  as  man  (homo  ipse), 
does  not  attain  to  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  but 
also  through  the  impotence  of  his  understand- 
ing. If  he  had  said,  men  will  not  to  be  wise, 
that  indeed  would  have  been  true,  but  he  adds 
that  they  indeed  cannot  be.  Whence  we  infer 
that  faith  is  not  in  every  man's  power,  but  is 
the  gift  of  God In  judging  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Gospel,  men's  minds  are  of  necessity 
blind  till  they  are  enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of 
God." 

The  same  doctrine  is  maintained  by  followers 
of  Calvin  at  the  present  day,  but  commonly,  I 
suppose,  with  some  softening  or  suppression  in 


VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM.  215 

the  mode  of  stating  it,  for  the  sake  of  accom- 
modating it  to  the  existing  condition  of  men's 
minds.  It  is  said,  that  "  the  evidence  of  relig- 
ious truth  is  the  truth  itself  It  is  believed  for 
its  own  sake.  It  is  seen  and  felt  to  be  true. 
Faith  is  no  work  of  reason,  and  therefore  can- 
not be  overthrown  by  it,  since  believing  no 
more  arises  from  argument  than  seeing  or  tast- 
ing. But  the  great  majority  of  men  have  no 
such  perception  of  the  peculiar  truths  of  the 
Gospel.  The  natural  man  cannot  discern  the 
things  of  the  Spirit.  The  spiritual  man  dis- 
cerns their  excellence,  and  receives  them  be- 
cause he  does  discern  them.  The  doctrines  of 
Christ  crucified  [as  an  atonement  for  the  sins 
of  men],  of  the  corruption  of  man  [of  man's  na- 
ture], of  the  necessity  of  regeneration  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  [of  a  new  nature 
given  by  God  instead  of  the  nature  with  which 
he  formed  us],  and  of  eternal  retribution  [of 
that  eternal  misery  to  which  man  is  justly  lia- 
ble for  what  he  is  by  nature],  do  not  commend 
themselves  to  the  hearts  of  unrenewed  men." 
Undoubtedly  they  do  not.  One  may  at  first 
thought  be  disposed  to  assent  unreservedly 
to  the  proposition,  that  a  man's  nature  must 
be  supernaturally  changed  before  the  doctrines 
of  Calvinism  can  commend  themselves  to  his 


216  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

heart  or  his  moral  sentiments.  But  some 
knowledge  of  what  has  been  and  what  is  the 
state  of  opinion  in  the  world,  and  the  exercise 
of  Christian  charity,  may  satisfy  us  that  men, 
even  in  an  unregenerate  state,  continuing  as 
God  made  them,  without  having  experienced 
any  great  moral  change,  natural  or  supernat- 
ural, are  capable  of  receiving  those  doctrines. 
There  is  no  difficulty,  however,  in  assenting  to 
the  proposition,  that  their  belief  no  more  arises 
from  argument  than  seeing  or  tasting. 

In  the  passage  marked  as  quoted  I  have 
adopted  the  language  of  a  very  respectable  writ- 
er, who,  from  his  character  and  position,  may 
be  considered  as  a  representative  of  the  larger 
number  of  Presbyterians  in  this  country.* 

Other  professed  Calvinists  of  the  present  day 
express  themselves  differently.  The  statutes  of 
the  most  important  and  most  learned  of  the  or- 
thodox Schools  of  Theology  in  New  England 
require  that  its  Professors  should  be  "  ortho- 
dox and  consistent  Calvinists,"  and  enforce  the 
requisition  by  demanding  their  assent  —  an 
assent  to  be  repeated  every  five  years  —  to  an 
elaborate  creed,  which,  if  it  vary  from  orthodox 


*  See  an  article  in  the  number  of  the  "  Princeton  Review"  for 
January,  1840,  p.  33,  seqq. 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  217 

Calvinism,  does  so  only  by  inclining  to  what 
have  been,  perhaps  erroneously,  regarded  by 
some  as  the  balder  and  more  offensive  doc- 
trines of  Hopkins,  an  heresiarch  probably  but 
little  known  out  of  this  country.  But  it  is  one 
of  the  saddest  indications  of  the  religious  state 
of  our  times,  in  this  country,  in  England,  and 
elsewhere,  that  the  solemn  profession  of  assent 
to  an  orthodox  creed  has  but  little  binding 
force  on  the  minds  of  tho^e  who  make  it, 
and  indicates  little  of  their  real  belief.  The 
writer  to  whom  I  have  just  referred  quotes 
with  strong  disapprobation  from  a  distinguished 
Professor  of  that  School  the  following  doc- 
trine :  — "  The  truths  of  Christianity  have  al- 
ways been  addressed  to  the  intuitive  perceptions 
of  the  common  mind."  "  The  majority  of  cor- 
dial believers  in  the  Bible  know  the  Bible  to  be 
true,  because  they  feel  it  to  be  so.  Their  faith 
results  from  the  accordance  of  their  higher  na- 
ture with  the  spirit  of  the  Bible."  If  by  this 
"higher  nature"  be  meant,  as  the  CalviMstic 
doctrine  requires,  the  new  nature  given  to  the 
elect,  the  term  is  unsuitable  and  deceptive.  If 
it  be  used  to  denote  something  in  man  pre- 
vious to  the  change  of  nature  which  Calvinism 
insists  on  as  necessary  to  salvation,  —  something 
equivalent  to  "  the  intuitive  perceptions  of  the 

19 


218  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

common  mind,"  —  the  position  is  fundamentally 
opposite  to  Calvinism,  and  is,  at  the  same  time, 
one  which  either  a  Calvinist  or  an  anti-Calvin- 
ist  must  at  once  reject  as  untrue.  There  is 
nothing,  the  Calvinist  maintains,  in  the  natural 
man  in  accordance  with  the  things  of  the 
Spirit ;  and  there  is  nothing,  a  mere  philoso- 
pher will  maintain,  in  the  natural  sentiments  of 
man  in  accordance  with  the  doctrines  of  Cal- 
vinism. 

It  may  be  a  groundless  conjecture,  but  the 
language  last  quoted  seems  to  have  been  bor- 
rowed, perhaps  inadvertently,  from  a  class  of 
theologians,  who  have  been  commonly  known 
among  us  under  the  name  of  "  Transcendental- 
ists,"  with  whom  the  followers  of  Calvin  have 
little  in  common,  except  the  rejection  of  rea- 
son as  the  foundation  of  religious  belief  But 
even  in  this  respect  there  is  a  wide  distinction 
between  them,  which,  in  the  case  supposed,  must 
have  been  overlooked  by  the  author  of  the  pas- 
sages last  quoted.  The  doctrines  of  one  of  the 
parties  we  know,  for  they  have  been  presented 
with  no  essential  difference  of  statement  in  a 
great  body  of  creeds  and  other  writings ;  the 
doctrines  of  the  other  party,  what  they  consider 
as  constituting  Christianity,  we  do  not  know 
with  any  precision,  for  there  has  been  no  agree- 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  219 

ment  among  the  diiFerent  members  of  the  party 
in  their  exposition  of  them,  nor,  I  suspect,  has 
even  the  positive  belief  of  any  one  member  of  it 
been  clearly  stated.  But  whatever  conceptions 
we  may  form  of  their  belief,  it  will  not  be 
denied  that  for  the  most  part  it  is  some- 
thing very  dissimilar  and  adverse  to  Calvinism. 
What  one  party  intuitively  discerns  to  be 
true,  the  other  party  intuitively  discerns  to 
be  false.  Nor  is  this  strange ;  for  the  nature 
of  their  intuition  is  as  different  as  its  results. 
One  party  regards  it  as  a  supernatural  gift  of 
God  to,  comparatively,  a  small  number,  and 
denies  the  capacity  of  thus  discerning  religious 
truth  to  the  generality  of  men  in  their  natural 
state.  The  other  contends  that  it  is  a  gift  of 
nature  to  all  men.  From  this  last  position  it 
would  seem  to  follow  that  the  vast  amount  of 
gross  errors  concerning  religion,  which  have 
inundated  Christendom  and  the  world,  is  the 
result,  solely,  of  the  perversity  of  the  human 
will.  But  we  are  debarred  from  this  con- 
clusion by  the  absurdity  of  making  intuition 
subject  to  the  will,  —  by  its  involving  the  sup- 
position, that  we  may  will  not  to  see  what  we 
do  see ;  that  a  man,  for  example,  may  will,  if 
he  pleases,  to  believe  that  the  three  angles  of 
an  equilateral  triangle  are  not  equal. 


220  VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM. 

The  concert  of  different  Christian  sects,  oth- 
erwise much  at  variance  with  each  other,  for 
the  purpose  of  depriving  reason  of  her  proper 
office  in  the  highest  department  of  thought, 
and  the  doctrines  which  in  connection  with  it 
have  been  set  up  in  opposition  to  reason,  have 
produced  their  natural  effects  in  alienating  men 
from  our  religion.  Irrational  credulity  has  for 
its  regular  counterpart  irrational  incredulity. 
The  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  writers  of  our  day  on  the  subject  of 
religion  are,  on  the  one  side,  the  inculcation  of 
doctrines  which  the  human  intellect  has  out- 
grown, and,  on  the  other  side,  the  absence  of 
any  rational  religious  faith,  tending  to  and  often 
ending  in  atheism.  I  do  not  mean  by  atheism 
the  denial  of  any  power,  operating  according  to 
certain  physical  laws  which  regulate  the  Uni- 
verse, and  producing  motion  and  life,  —  for  this 
denial,  though  it  has  been  virtually  made  or 
closely  approached  by  some  modern  speculatists, 
is  a  mere  absurdity,  to  be  maintained  by  no  one 
who  has  not  quite  lost  sight  of  his  reason  and 
abandoned  his  common  sense  in  the  mazes  of 
metaphysics,  —  but  the  denial  of  all  intelligent 
action  or  benevolent  purpose  in  the  operations 
of  that  power,  the  denial  of  God  in  the  sense  of 
a  being  possessed  of  moral  and  intellectual  at- 
tributes. 


YIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  221 

Such  being  the  state  of  things,  are  we  to  con- 
clude that  religious  truth  is  unattainable  ;  or 
that,  if  it  be  attainable  by  a  few  individuals, 
there  are  no  means  of  procuring  its  general  re- 
ception ]  Or  shall  we  believe  that  the  world 
is  now  going  on  very  well  without  it ;  and  that 
to  ourselves  individually  it  is  a  matter  of  little 
concern  whether  our  characters  are  formed,  and 
our  conduct  controlled,  by  true  religious  princi- 
ples, or  not  ]  Are  we  to  conclude,  that  it  is  the 
part  of  a  wise  man  to  turn  away  his  eyes  from 
the  moral  and  religious  ignorance,  the  debase- 
ment and  annihilation  of  intellect,  which  exist 
in  the  Christian  world  ]  Should  we  look  wdth 
philosophical  indifference  on  the  vices  and  self- 
ishness which  spread  through  all  classes  of  so- 
ciety, on  the  physical  and  moral  wretchedness 
of  the  poor  and  the  crimes  which  it  generates, 
on  oppression  and  tyranny,  and  the  maddening 
passions  which  they  are  exasperating]  Should 
we  regard  these  things  as  the  necessary  condi- 
tion of  humanity]  Or  should  we  expect  any 
great  improvement  only  through  violent  changes 
of  the  forms  of  human  government,  in  the  pull- 
ing to  pieces  and  reconstruction  of  human  so- 
ciety 1  —  its  reconstruction  with  the  same  mate- 
rials that  now  exist,  greatly  damaged  in  the 

19* 


222  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

work  of  demolition  1     Certainly  we  are  to  come 
to  no  such  conclusions. 

The  state  of  the  world  would  be  very  differ- 
ent from  what  it  is,  if  Christianity  were  really 
the   religion   of  those   who  are  numbered   as 
Christians.      Every   essential   improvement   in 
the  condition  of  men  is  to  be  hoped  for  only 
from  the  operation  of  Christian  truth ;  —  not 
from   errors    contrary  to  Christian   truth   and 
usurping  its  place.     Such  errors  may  in  indi- 
vidual minds  have  become  so  blended  with  im- 
portant truths  and  holy  affections,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  effect  their  separation  ;  they  may  be 
so  controlled  in  their  operation  by  those  truths 
and  affections  as  to  become  harmless ;  or  they 
may  even  have  entered  into  such  combinations 
that  their  partial  operation  is  for  good ;  —  as 
the   stern  courage,  the   unyielding  endurance, 
and  the  other  harsh  virtues  of  our  Puritan  an- 
cestors, derived  strength  from  their  faith  that 
they  were  a  peculiar  people,  the  elect  of  God. 
But  reUgious  errors  considered  in  their  direct 
and  uncontrolled  operation   are  simply  perni- 
cious.    Their  product  is  only  evil.     They  can 
form  no  barrier  against  that  flood  of  irreligion 
and  crime  which  threatens  to  overspread  a  great 
part  of  Europe,  and  which  has  made  its  way 
into  our  own  country.     It  is  only  through  the 


VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM.  223 

inseparable  mixture  of  Christian  truth  which 
enters  into  every  system  of  false  religion  pro- 
fessed by  Christians  that  any  good  has  been 
wrought.  But  the  deluge  that  impends,  should 
it  not  be  stayed,  will  sweep  away,  not  those  sys- 
tems of  false  religion  alone,  but  all  those  Christ 
tian  principles  and  sentiments  which  have  been 
connected  with  them,  and  leave  only  shapeless 
piles  of  ruin  behind. 

To  make  Christianity  the  religion  of  Chris- 
tendom, we  must  pursue  a  course  directly  oppo- 
site to  that  which,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been 
adopted  by  most  Christian  sects.  The  author- 
ity of  reason,  instead  of  being  disparaged  and 
rejected,  must  be  fully  acknowledged  and  ap- 
pealed to,  on  this,  the  most  important  subject 
that  falls  within  her  jurisdiction.  Men  must 
be  called  upon  to  submit  to  her  decisions ;  to 
believe  and  feel  and  do  what  their  reason  re- 
quires that  they  should  believe  and  feel  and 
do,  and  nothing  beside.  We  must  vindicate 
the  authority  of  reason  before  we  can  hope  to 
vindicate  the  authority  of  religion.  Make  men 
rational  and  you  make  them  religious ;  for  true 
religion  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  reason. 
Let  it  not  be  said  that  we  are  assured  of  the 
highest  truths  of  religion,  of  God's  care  for 
men,  and  of  man's  immortality,  only  by  revela- 


224  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

tion.  This  is  true.  But  we  are  assured  that 
such  a  revelation  has  been  made  only  by  rea- 
son. Christian  faith  is  a  rational  faith.  It 
has  been  exposed  to  such  disastrous  attacks,  it 
has  failed  so  much  of  producing  its  proper  ef- 
fect, because  it  has  commonly  been  presented 
to  men  as  an  irrational  faith ;  because  its 
professors,  instead  of  appealing  to  reason,  have 
endeavored  to  withdraw  it  from  her  jurisdic- 
tion. 

At  the  very  outset,  then,  the  rational  believer 
parts  company  with  the  great  majority  of 
professed  Christians,  and  pursues  an  opposite 
course.  The  fundamental  error  which  has  been 
committed  of  dissociating  reason  from  religious 
faith  has  been  the  vital  principle,  the  necessary 
condition,  of  all  the  other  errors  which  have  so 
changed  the  aspect  of  Christianity.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  reason  as  a  guide,  there  is  no  mistake 
into  which  men  may  not  fall.  The  proposition 
may  seem  too  simple  and  indisputable  to  be 
thus  formally  stated.  But  the  most  simple  and 
indisputable  truths  are  often  the  most  impor- 
tant; and  when  they  are  disregarded  or  con- 
temned, it  becomes  necessary  to  state  them  in 
their  bare  distinctness.  Reason  is  the  most 
sacred  gift  of  God  to  man,  the  faculty  by  which 
we  become  accountable  beings ;    it  is  its  right- 


VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM.  225 

ful  office  to  determine  our  belief  and  to  regu- 
late our  conduct.  To  withdraw  ourselves  from 
its  control,  to  regard  its  exercise  as  unholy, 
to  trust  to  any  other  guide  that  may  be  substi- 
tuted in  its  place,  is  to  withdraw  ourselves  from 
the  guidance  of  God. 

Eeason  and  Truth  are  the  only  hope  of  man- 
kind. It  is  through  them  alone  that  any  essen- 
tial improvement  in  the  condition  of  men  —  of 
individuals  and  of  nations  —  is  to  be  wrought 
out.  Weak  instruments  they  may  be,  often 
overborne  and  silenced  by  the  discordant 
clamor  of  men's  passions  and  prejudices  and 
folly,  by  selfishness  and  sin ;  —  but  there  are 
no  other.  It  is  by  reason  that  truth  is  discov- 
ered, and  through  reason  that  it  is  addressed  to 
our  hearts.  By  what  other  influence  should 
they  be  controlled  1  By  what  other  influence 
should  our  permanent  afiections  be  formed"? 
Certainly  neither  by  false  doctrines,  nor  by  un- 
substantial imaginations,  nor  by  the  blind,  dis- 
orderly working  of  natural  impulses  good  and 
bad.  Intellectual  truth  is  the  essential  constit- 
uent of  moral  goodness.  Whoever  acts  virtu- 
ously, whoever  acts  with  the  purpose  of  serving 
his  fellow-men,  does  so  from  a  recognition,  in 
thought  or  feeling,  of  the  truth  of  his  obliga- 
tions to  his  fellow-men ;  and  any  strong  sense 


226  VIEWS   OF  CALVINISM. 

of  these  obligations  rests  ultimately  upon  his 
recognizing  his  and  their  relations  to  God 
through  a  common  nature  as  immortal  beings. 
When  we  regard  ourselves  and  our  fellow-men 
as  mere  accidents  of  this  earth,  born  to  perish, 
our  affections  for  them,  our  desire  to  serve 
them,  must  be  of  the  same  kind  as  those  we 
may  have  toward  the  domestic  animals  about  us, 
between  whom  and  them  we  have  effaced  in 
our  minds  any  essential  distinction.  To  those 
who  may  think  and  feel  thus,  the  happiness  of 
mankind  is  not  to  be  intrusted.  Through  the 
sense  of  personal  suffering  and  wrong,  through 
vindictive  passions,  or  bitterness  of  temper,  or 
the  mere  love  of  notoriety,  the  source  of  no 
good  but  of  many  bad  actions,  or  from  the  de- 
sire to  secure  the  power  of  oppression  in  their 
own  hands  and  profit  by  it,  men  whose  charac- 
ters afford  no  ground  for  confidence  may  be 
ready  to  fight  or  to  rail  against  the  established 
abuses  that  are  preying  on  the  happiness  of 
man.  But  from  such  men  nothing  is  to  be 
looked  for  but  the  substitution,  through  wast- 
ing and  demoralizing  violence,  of  a  new  class  of 
evils  for  those  that  now  exist. 

The  sole  remedy  against  this  flux  and  reflux 
of  evils  is  to  be  found  in  the  power  of  religion, 
—  in  Christianity,  not  such  as  it  has  often  been 


VIEWS  OF  CALVINISM.  227 

represented  to  be,  but  such  as  it  is ;  in  inform- 
ing men  of  all  classes  with  its  spirit  and  its 
truths.  It  was  through  this  channel  alone, 
through  the  Truth,  that  the  blessings  of  God 
communicated  by  the  great  Benefactor  of  our 
race  were  to  be  conveyed  to  mankind.  On  the 
last  day  of  his  life,  that  day  of  agony  and  tri- 
umph, he  pronounced  the  declaration,  —  "I 
was  born  for  this  end,  and  for  this  end  have  I 
come  to  the  world,  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
Truth."  He  came  to  bear  testimony  to  that 
truth,  religious  truth,  which  underlies  all  other 
moral  truth,  and  which  alone  concerns  man  in 
his  permanent  relations,  his  relations  to  God 
and  eternity.  It  was  for  the  establishment  of 
that  truth  that  God  manifested  himself  through 
Christ.  It  was  by  the  name  of  "  the  Truth  " 
that  our  Lord  designated  his  religion,  thus 
identifying  it  with  all  that  it  most  concerns  us 
to  believe. 

"  I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life," 
—  that  is.  Eternal  Life.  So  he  prayed  for  his 
immediate  disciples,  "  Father,  sanctify  them 
through  the  Truth ;  thy  doctrine  is  Truth." 
So  he  promised  them,  "  The  spirit  of  the 
Truth,"  the  spirit  from  God  that  accompanies 
the  reception  of  my  religion,  "  will  guide  you 
to  all  the  Truth,"   to  all  the  essential  truth, 


228  VIEWS  OF   CALVINISM. 

which  constitutes  it.  Thus  he  told  them, 
"  If  you  remain  steadfast  in  what  I  teach,  you 
will  know  the  Truth  ;  and  the  Truth  will 
make  you  free."  They  were  expecting  that  the 
Messiah  would  deliver  their  nation  from  sub- 
jection to  the  Eomans.  But  it  was  another 
sort  of  freedom  that  he  promised  them  through 
the  knowledge  of  the  Truth. 


DISCOURSE 


ON    THE 

LATEST    FORM    OF    INFIDELITY, 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE 

"  ASSOCIATION  OF  THE  ALUMNI  OF  THE  CAMBRIDGE 
THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOL," 

ON  THE  19th  of  JPLV,  1839. 


20 


INTEODUCTOEY   NOTE. 


In  the  year  1830, 1  resigned  (in  consequence  of  ill  health) 
my  office  of  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature  in  the  Univer- 
sity in  Cambridge.  In  1839  the  gentlemen  who  had  been 
educated  in  the  Theological  School  formed  themselves  into 
a  society,  and  at  their  request  I  delivered  the  following  ad- 
dress on  the  occasion  of  their  first  public  meeting. 


DISCOURSE 


I  ADDRESS  you,  Gentlemen,  and  our  friends 
who  are  assembled  with  us,  on  an  occasion  of 
more  than  common  interest ;  as  it  is  your  first 
meeting  since  joining  together  in  a  society  as 
former  pupils  of  the  Theological  School  in  this 
place.  Many  of  you  may  look  back  over  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
your  residence  here.  In  thus  meeting  with 
those  in  whose  society  we  have  spent  some  of 
the  earlier  years  of  life,  recollections  are  natu- 
rally called  up  of  pleasures  that  are  gone,  of 
ties  that  have  been  broken,  of  hopes  that  have 
perished,  and  of  bright  imaginations  that  have 
faded  away.  Such  recollections  produce  those 
serious  views  of  our  present  existence  with 
which  religious  sentiment  is  connected.  They 
make  us  feel  the  value  of  a  Christian's  faith  ; 
of  that  faith,  which,  where  decay  was  before 

20* 


234  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

written  on  all  most  dear  to  us,  stamps  immor- 
tality instead. 

I  see  among  you  many,  who,  I  know,  will 
recall  our  former  connection  with  the  same  in- 
terest as  I  do,  and  whom  I  am  privileged  to  re- 
gard as  friends.  As  for  those  of  you.  Gentle- 
men, to  whom  I  have  not  stood  in  the  relation 
of  an  instructor,  we  also  have  an  intimate  con- 
nection with  each  other.  Your  office  is  to  de- 
fend, explain,  and  enforce  the  truths  of  Christi- 
anity ;  and  with  the  importance  of  those  truths 
no  one  can  be  more  deeply  impressed  than  my- 
self So  far  as  you  are  faithful  to  your  duty, 
the  strong  sympathy  of  all  good  men  is  with 
you. 

But  we  meet  in  a  revolutionary  and  uncer- 
tain state  of  religious  opinion,  existing  through- 
out what  is  called  the  Christian  world.  Our 
religion  is  very  imperfectly  understood,  and  re- 
ceived by  comparatively  a  small  number  with 
intelligent  faith.  In  proportion  as  our  view  is 
more  extended,  and  we  are  better  acquainted 
with  /what  is  and  what  has  been,  we  shall  be- 
come more  sensible  of  the  great  changes  that 
have  long  been  in  preparation,  but  which  of 
late  have  been  rapidly  developed.  The  present 
state  of  things  imposes  new  responsibilities 
upon  all  who  know  the  value  of  our  faith  and 


OF  INFIDELITY.  235 

have  ability  to  maintain  it.  Let  us  then  em- 
ploy this  occasion  in  considering  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  times,  and  some  of  those 
opinions  now  prevalent,  which  are  at  war  with 
a  belief  in  Christianity. 

By  a  belief  in  Christianity,  we  mean  the  be- 
lief that  Christianity  is  a  revelation  by  God  of 
the  truths  of  religion ;  and  that  the  divine  au- 
thority of  him  whom  God  commissioned  to 
speak  to  us  in  his  name  was  attested,  in  the 
only  mode  in  which  it  could  be,  by  miraculous 
displays  of  his  power.  Religious  truths  are 
those  truths,  and  those  alone,  which  concern 
the  relations  of  man  to  God  and  eternity.  It  is 
only  as  an  immortal  being  and  a  creature  of 
God,  that  man  is  capable  of  religion.  Now 
those  truths  which  concern  our  higher  nature, 
and  all  that  can  with  reason  deeply  interest  us 
in  our  existence,  we  Christians  receive,  as  we 
trust,  on  the  testimony  of  God.  He  who  re- 
jects Christianity  must  admit  them,  if  he  admit 
them  at  all,  upon  some  other  evidence. 

But  the  fundamental  truths  of  religion  taught 
by  Christianity  became  very  early  connected 
with  human  speculations,  to  which  the  same 
importance  was  gradually  attached,  and  for  the 
proof  of  which  the  same  divine  authority  was 
claimed.     These    speculations  spread  out   and 


236  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

consolidated  into  systems  of  theology,  present- 
ing aspects  equally  hostile  to  reason  and  to  our 
faith ;  so  hostile,  that,  for  many  centuries,  a 
true  Christian  in  belief  and  heart,  earnest  to 
communicate  to  others  the  blessings  of  his  faith, 
would  have  experienced,  anywhere  in  Christen- 
dom, a  fate  similar  to  that  which  his  Master 
suffered  among  the  Jews.  It  would  be  taking 
a  different  subject  from  what  I  have  proposed, 
to  attempt  to  explain  and  trace  the  causes  of 
this  monstrous  phenomenon.  The  false  repre- 
sentations of  Christianity,  that  have  come  down 
to  us  from  less  enlightened  times,  have  ceased 
to  retain  their  power  over  far  the  larger  portion 
of  those  i^idividuals  who  form,  for  good  or  evil, 
the  character  of  the  age  in  which  they  live. 
But  the  reaction  of  the  human  intellect  and 
heart  against  their  imposition  has  as  yet  had 
but  little  tendency  to  procure  the  reception  of 
more  correct  notions  of  Christianity.  On  the 
contrary,  the  inveterate  and  enormous  errors 
that  have  prevailed  have  so  perverted  men's 
conceptions,  have  so  obscured  and  perplexed 
the  whole  subject,  have  so  stood  in  the  way  of 
all  correct  knowledge  of  facts,  and  all  just  rea- 
soning; there  are  so  few  works  in  Christian 
theology  not  at  least  colored  and  tainted  by 
them ;  and  they  still  present  such  obstacles  at 


OF  INFIDELITY.  237 

every  step  to  a  rational  investigation  of  the 
truth;  that  the  degree  of  learning,  reflection, 
judgment,  freedom  from  worldly  influences,  and 
independence  of  thought,  necessary  to  ascertain 
for  one's  self  the  true  character  of  Christianity, 
is  to  be  expected  from  but  few.  The  greater 
number,  consequently,  confound  the  systems 
that  have  been  substituted  for  it  with  Christi- 
anity itself,  and  receive  them  in  its  stead,  or,  in 
rejecting  them,  reject  our  faith.  The  tendency 
of  the  age  is  to  the  latter  result. 

This  tendency  is  strengthened  by  the  politi- 
cal action  of  the  times,  especially  in  the  Old 
World,  xlncient  institutions  and  traditionary 
power  are  there  struggling  to  maintain  them- 
selves against  the  vast  amount  of  new  energy 
that  has  been  brought  into  action.  Long-exist- 
ing forms  of  society  are  giving  way.  The  old 
prejudices  by  which  they  were  propped  up  are 
decaying.  Wise  men  look  with  awe  at  the 
spectacle;  as  if  they  saw  in  some  vast  tower, 
hanging  over  a  populous  city,  rents  opening, 
and  its  sides  crumbling  and  inclining.  But  in 
the  contest  between  the  new  and  the  old,  which 
has  spread  over  Europe,  erroneous  representa- 
tions of  Christianity  are  in  alliance  with  estab- 
lished power.  They  have  long  been  so.  The 
institutions   connected   with    them   have   long 


238  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

been  principal  sources  of  rank  and  emolument. 
What  passes  for  Christianity  is  thus  placed  in 
opposition  to  the  demands  of  the  mass  of  men, 
and  is  regarded  by  them  as  inimical  to  their 
rights ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  to 
whom  false  Christianity  affords  aid  repel  all 
examination  into  the  genuineness  of  its  claims. 

The  commotion  of  men's  minds  in  the  rest  of 
the  civilized  world  produces  a  sympathetic  ac- 
tion in  our  own  country.  We  have  indeed  but 
little  to  guard  us  against  the  influence  of  the 
depraving  literature  and  noxious  speculations 
which  flow  in  among  us  from  Europe.  We 
have  not  yet  any  considerable  body  of  intellect- 
ual men,  devoted  to  the  higher  departments  of 
thought,  and  capable  of  informing  and  guiding 
others  in  attaining  the  truth.  There  is  no  con- 
trolling power  of  intellect  among  us. 

Christianity,  then,  has  been  grossly  misrepre- 
sented, is  very  imperfectly  understood,  and  pow- 
erful causes  are  in  operation  to  obstruct  all  cor- 
rect knowledge  of  it,  and  to  withdraw  men's 
thoughts  and  affections  from  it.  But  at  the 
present  day  there  is  little  of  that  avowed  and 
zealous  infidelity,  the  infidelity  of  highly  popu- 
lar authors,  acknowledged  enemies  of  our  faith, 
which  characterized  the  latter  half  of  the  last 
century.     Their  writings,   often   disfigured   by 


OF  INFIDELITY.  239 

gross  immoralities,  are  now  falling  into  disre- 
pute. But  the  effects  of  those  writings,  and  of 
the  deeply  seated  causes  by  which  they  were 
produced,  are  still  widely  diffused.  There  is 
now  no  bitter  warfare  against  Christianity,  be- 
cause such  men  as  then  waged  it  would  now 
consider  our  religion  as  but  a  name,  a  pretence, 
the  obsolete  religion  of  the  state,  the  supersti- 
tion of  the  vulgar.  But  infidelity  has  but  as- 
sumed another  form,  and  in  Europe,  and  espe- 
cially in  Germany,  has  made  its  way  among  a 
very  large  portion  of  nominally  Christian  theo- 
logians. Among  them  are  now  to  be  found 
those  whose  writings  are  most  hostile  to  all 
that  characterizes  our  faith.  Christianity  is 
undermined  by  them  with  the  pretence  of  set- 
tling its  foundations  anew.  Phantoms  are 
substituted  for  the  realities  of  revelation. 

It  is  asserted,  apparently  on  good  authority, 
that  the  celebrated  atheist  Spinoza  composed 
the  work  in  which  his  opinions  are  most  fully 
unfolded,  in  the  Dutch  language,  and  commit- 
ted it  to  his  friend,  the  physician  Meyer,  to 
translate  into  Latin  ;  that,  where  the  name  God 
now  appears,  Spinoza  had  written  Nature  ;  but 
that  Meyer  induced  him  to  substitute  the  for- 
mer word  for  the  latter,  in  order  partially  to 
screen   himself  from   the  odium  to  which  he 


240  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

might  be  exposed.*  Whether  this  anecdote  be 
true  or  not,  a  similar  abuse  of  language  appears 
in  many  of  the  works  to  which  I  refer.  The 
holiest  names  are  there ;  a  superficial  or  igno- 
rant reader  may  be  imposed  upon  by  their  oc- 
currence ;  but  they  are  there  as  words  of  show, 
devoid  of  their  essential  meaning,  and  perverted 
to  express  some  formless  and  powerless  concep- 
tion. In  Germany  the  theology  of  which  I 
speak  has  allied  itself  with  atheism,  with  pan- 
theism, and  with  the  other  irreligious  specula- 
tions that  have  appeared  in  those  metaphysical 
systems  from  which  the  God  of  Christianity  is 
excluded. 

There  is  no  subject  of  historical  inquiry  of 
more  interest  than  the  history  of  opinions ; 
there  is  none  of  more  immediate  concern  than 
the  state  of  opinions ;  for  opinions  govern  the 

*  See  Le  Clerc's  "  Bibliotheque  Ancienne  et  Moderne,"  Tom. 
XV.  p.  433  ;  Tom.  XXII.  p.  135.  This  account,  which  Le  Clerc 
says  was  given  him  in  writing  by  a  man  worthy  of  credit,  is  con- 
firmed not  merely  by  the  whole  tenor  of  Spinoza's  system,  but  by 
his  use  of  the  words  "  God  "  and  "  nature  "  as  interchangeable. 
Thus  he  says  in  the  Preface  to  the  fourth  Part  of  his  Ethics,  — 
"  We  have  shown  in  the  Appendix  to  the  first  Part,  that  Nature 
does  not  act  for  any  end.  For  that  eternal  and  infinite  being, 
which  we  call  God  or  Nature,  acts  by  the  same  necessity  by  which 
it  exists.  The  reason,  therefore,  or  cause  why  God  or  Nature 
acts,  and  why  it  exists,  is  one  and  the  same.  As  it  exists  for  no 
end,  so  it  acts  for  no  end." 


OF  INFIDELITY.  241 

world.  Except  in  cases  of  strong  temptation, 
men's  evil  passions  must  coincide  with  or  must 
pervert  their  opinions,  before  they  can  obtain 
the  mastery.  It  is,  therefore,  not  a  light  ques- 
tion, what  men  think  of  Christianity.  It  is  a 
question  on  which,  in  the  judgment  of  an  intel- 
ligent believer,  the  condition  of  the  civilized 
world  depends.  With  these  views  we  will  con- 
sider the  aspect  that  infidelity  has  taken  in  our 
times. 

The  latest  form  of  infidelity  is  distinguished 
by  assuming  the  Christian  name,  while  it 
strikes  directly  at  the  root  of  faith  in  Christian- 
ity, and  indirectly  of  all  religion,  by  denying 
the  miracles  attesting  the  divine  mission  of 
Christ.  The  first  writer,  so  far  as  I  know, 
who  maintained  the  impossibility  of  a  miracle 
was  Spinoza,  whose  argument,  disengaged  from 
the  use  of  language  foreign  from  his  opinions, 
is  simply  this,  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  the 
laws  by  which  God  is  bound,  Nature  and  God 
being  the  same,  and  therefore  laws  from  w^hich 
Nature  or  God  can  never  depart.*  The  argu- 
ment is  founded  on  atheism.  The  denial  of  the 
possibility  of  miracles  must  involve  the  denial 
of  the  existence  of  God ;    since,  if  there  be  a 

*  See  his  "  Tractatus  Theologieo-Politicus,"  particularly  Cap. 
VI. 

21 


242  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

God,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  there  can 
be  no  room  for  doubt  that  he  may  act  in  a 
manner  different  from  that  in  which  he  displays 
his  power  in  the  ordinary  operations  of  nature. 
It  deserves  notice,  however,  that  in  Spinoza's 
discussion  of  this  subject  we  find  that  affecta- 
tion of  religious  language,  and  of  religious  rev- 
erence and  concern,  which  is  so  striking  a  char- 
acteristic of  many  of  the  irreligious  speculations 
of  our  day,  and  of  which  he,  perhaps,  furnished 
the  prototype ;  for  he  has  been  regarded  as  a 
profound  teacher,  a  patriarch  of  truth,  by  some 
of  the  most  noted  among  the  infidel  philoso- 
phers and  theologians  of  Germany.  "  I  will 
show  from  Scripture,"  he  says,  "  that  the  de- 
crees and  commands  of  God,  and  consequently 
his  providence,  are  nothing  but  the  order  of 

nature If  any  thing  should  take  place 

in  nature  which  does  not  follow  from  its  laws, 
that  would  necessarily  be  repugnant  to  the 
order  which  God  has  established  in  nature  by 
its  universal  laws,  and,  therefore,  contrary  to 
nature  and  its  laws ;  and  consequently  the  be- 
lief of  such  an  event  would  cause  universal 
doubt,  and  lead  to  atheism."  *  So  strong  a 
hold  has  religion  upon  the  inmost  nature  of 

*  Ibid.,  Cap.  VI. 


OF  INFIDELITY.  243 

man,  that  even  its  enemies,  in  order  to  delude 
their  followers,  thus  assume  its  aspect  and  mock 
its  tones. 

What  has  been  stated  is  the  great  argument 
of  Spinoza,  to  which  every  thing  in  his  discus- 
sion of  the  subject  refers ;  but  this  discussion 
may  appear  like  the  text-book  of  much  that 
has  been  written  in  modern  times  concerning 
it.  There  is  one,  however,  among  the  writings 
against  the  miracles  of  Christianity,  of  a  differ- 
ent kind,  the  famous  Essay  of  Hume.  None 
has  drawn  more  attention,  or  has  more  served 
as  a  groundwork  for  infidelity.  Yet,  consider- 
ing the  sagacity  of  the  author,  and  the  celeb- 
rity of  his  work,  it  is  remarkable,  that,  in  his 
main  argument,  the  whole  point  to  be  proved 
is  broadly  assumed  in  the  premises.  "  It  is  a 
miracle,"  he  says,  "  that  a  dead  man  should 
come  to  life ;  because  that  has  never  been  ob- 
served in  any  age  or  country.  There  must, 
therefore,  be  a  uniform  experience  against  every 
miraculous  event;  otherwise  the  event  would 
not  merit  that  appellation."  The  conclusion,  if 
conclusion  it  may  be  called,  is  easily  made.  If 
a  miracle  has  never  been  observed  in  any  age 
or  country,  if  uniform  experience  shows  that 
no  miracle  ever  occurred,  then  it  follows  that 
all  accounts  of  past  miracles  are  undeserving  of 


244  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

credit.  But  if  there  be  an  attempt  to  stretch 
this  easy  conclusion,  and  to  represent  it  as  in- 
volving the  intrinsic  incredibility  of  a  miracle, 
the  argument  immediately  gives  way.  "  Expe- 
rience," says  Hume,  "  is  our  only  guide  in  rea- 
soning concerning  matters  of  fact."  Experi- 
ence is  the  foundation  of  such  reasoning,  but 
we  may  draw  inferences  from  our  experience. 
We  may  conclude  from  it  the  existence  of  a 
power  capable  of  works  which  we  have  never 
known  it  to  perform ;  and  no  one,  it  may  be 
presumed,  who  believes  that  there  is  a  God, 
will  say,  that  he  is  convinced  by  his  experience, 
that  God  can  manifest  his  power  only  in  con- 
formity to  the  laws  which  he  has  imposed  upon 
nature. 

Hume  cannot  be  charged  with  affecting  re- 
ligion ;  but  in  the  conclusion  of  his  Essay,  he 
says,  in  mockery,  "  I  am  the  better  pleased 
with  the  method  of  reasoning  here  delivered,  as 
I  thinly  it  may  serve  to  confound  those  danger- 
ous friends,  or  disguised  enemies,  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  who  have  undertaken  to  defend  it 
by  the  principles  of  human  reason.  Our  most 
holy  religion  is  founded  on  faith^  not  on  rea- 
son ;  and  it  is  a  sure  method  of  exposing  it,  to 
put  it  to  such  a  trial  as  it  is  by  no  means  fitted 
to  endure."     What  Hume  said  in  derision  has 


OF  INFIDELITY.  245 

been  virtually  repeated,  apparently  in  earnest, 
by  some  of  the  modern  disbelievers  of  miracles, 
vi^ho  still  choose  to  profess  a  belief  in  Chris- 
tianity. 

To  deny  that  a  miracle  is  capable  of  proof, 
or  to  deny  that  it  may  be  proved  by  evidence 
of  the  same  nature  as  establishes  the  truth  of 
other  events,  is,  in  effect,  as  I  have  said,  to 
deny  the  existence  of  God.  A  miracle  can  be 
incapable  of  proof,  only  because  it  is  physically 
or  morally  impossible ;  since  what  is  possible 
may  be  proved.  To  deny  that  the  truth  of  a 
miracle  may  be  established,  involves  the  denial 
of  creation ;  for  there  can  be  no  greater  miracle 
than  creation.  It  equally  implies,  that  no  spe- 
cies of  being  that  propagates  its  kind  ever  had 
a  commencement ;  for  if  there  was  a  first  plant 
that  grew  without  seed,  or  a  first  man  without 
parents,  or  if  of  any  series  of  events  there  was 
a  first  without  such  antecedents  as  the  laws  of 
nature  require,  then  there  was  a  miracle.  So 
far  is  a  miracle  from  being  incapable  of  proof, 
that  you  can  escape  from  the  necessity  of  be- 
lieving innumerable  miracles,  only  by  believing 
that  man,  and  all  other  animals,  and  all  plants, 
have  existed  from  eternity  upon  this  earth, 
without  commencement  of  propagation,  there 
never  having  been  a  first  of  any  species.     No 

21* 


246  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

one,  at  the  present  day,  will  maintain  with  Lu- 
cretius, that  they  were  generated  from  inani- 
mate matter,  by  the  fermentation  of  heat  and 
moisture.  Nothing  can  seem  more  simple  or 
conclusive  than  the  view  we  have  taken ;  but 
we  may  render  it  more  familiar  by  an  appeal  to 
fact.  The  science  of  geology  has  shown  us, 
that  man  is  but  a  late  inhabitant  of  the  earth. 
The  first  individuals  of  our  race,  then,  were  not 
produced  as  all  others  have  been.  They  were 
formed  by  a  miracle,  or,  in  other  words,  by  an 
act  of  God's  power,  exerted  in  a  different  man- 
ner from  that  in  which  it  operates  according  to 
the  established  laws  of  nature.  Creation,  the 
most  conspicuous,  is  at  the  same  time  the  most 
undeniable,  of  miracles. 

By  any  one  who  admits  that  God  exists,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  words,  his  power  to 
effect  a  miracle  cannot  be  doubted ;  and  it 
would  be  the  excess  of  human  presumption  and 
folly  to  affirm,  that  it  would  be  inconsistent 
with  his  wisdom  and  goodness  ever  to  exert  his 
power  except  in  those  modes  of  action  which 
he  has  prescribed  to  himself  in  what  we  call 
the  laws  of  nature. 

On  the  contrary,  a  religious  philosopher  may 
regard  the  uniformity  of  the  manifestations  of 
God's  power  in  the  course  of  nature,  as  solely 


OF  INFIDELITY.  247 

intended  by  him  to  afford  a  stable  ground  for 
calculation  and  action  to  his  rational  creatures ; 
which  could  not  exist,  if  the  antecedents  that 
we  call  causes  were  not,  in  all  ordinary  cases, 
the  signs  of  consequent  effects.  This  uniform- 
ity is  necessary  to  enable  created  beings  to  be 
rational  agents.  The  Deity  has  imposed  upon 
himself  no  arbitrary  and  mechanical  laws.  It 
is  solely,  so  far  as  we  can  perceive,  for  the  sake 
of  his  creatures,  that  he  preserves  the  uniform- 
ity of  action  that  exists  in  his  works.  Beyond 
the  sphere  of  their  observation,  where  this 
cause  ceases,  w^e  have  no  ground  for  the  belief 
of  its  continuance.  There  is  nothing  to  war- 
rant the  opinion,  that  the  Deity  still  restrains 
his  power  by  an  adherence  to  laws,  the  observ- 
ance of  which  his  creatures  cannot  recognize. 
We  have  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  such 
an  apparently  causeless  uniformity  of  operation 
would  produce,  not  good,  but  evil.  We  have 
no  ground  for  supposing  that  the  operation  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  with  which  we  are  acquaint- 
ed, extends  beyond  the  ken  of  human  observa- 
tion ;  or  that  these  laws  are  any  thing  more 
than  a  superficial  manifestation  of  God's  power, 
the  mere  exterior  phenomena  of  the  universe. 
We  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  creation 
may  be  full  of  hidden  miracles. 


248  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

But,  if  the  uniformity  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
so  far  as  they  fall  within  our  cognizance,  is  or- 
dained by  God  for  the  good  of  his  creatures, 
then,  should  a  case  occur  in  which  a  great 
blessing  is  to  be  bestowed  upon  them,  the  dis- 
pensing of  which  requires  that  he  should  act 
in  other  modes,  no  presumption  would  exist 
against  his  so  acting.  So  far  as  we  are  able  to 
discern,  there  would  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
he  would  so  act.  A  miracle  is  improbable, 
when  we  can  perceive  no  sufficient  cause  in 
reference  to  his  creatures,  why  the  Deity  should 
vary  his  modes  of  operation ;  it  ceases  to  be  so, 
when  such  a  cause  is  assigned.  But  Christian- 
ity claims  to  reveal  facts,  a  knowledge  of  which 
is  essential  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  regenera- 
tion of  men ;  and  to  offer,  in  attestation  of  the 
truth  of  those  facts,  the  only  satisfactory  proof, 
the  authority  of  God,  evidenced  by  miraculous 
displays  of  his  power.  The  supposed  interpo- 
jsition  of  God  corresponds  to  the  weighty  pur- 
\pose  which  it  is  represented  as  effecting.  If 
Christianity  profess  to  teach  truths  of  infinite 
moment ;  if  we  perceive,  that  such  is  the .  char- 
acter of  its  teachings ;  if,  indeed,  they  are  true  ; 
and  if  we  are  satisfied,  from  the  exercise  of  our 
own  reason  and  the  history  of  the  world,  that 
they  relate  ^:o  facts  concerning   our  relations 


OF  INFIDELITY.  249 

and  destiny,  of  which  we  could  otherwise  ob- 
tain no  assurance,  then  this  character  of  our 
religion  removes  all  presumption  against  its 
claims  to  a  miraculous  origin. 

But  incredulity  respecting  the  miracles  of 
Christianity  rarely  has  its  source  in  any  process 
of  reasoning.  It  is  commonly  produced  by  the 
gross  misrepresentations  which  have  been  made 
of  Christianity.  It  has  also  another  cause, 
deeply  seated  in  our  nature  ;  —  the  inaptitude 
and  reluctance  of  men  to  extend  their  view  be- 
yond the  present  and  sensible,  to  raise  them- 
selves above  the  interests,  the  vexations,  the 
pleasures,  innocent  or  criminal,  that  lie  within 
the  horizon  of  a  year  or  a  week ;  and  to  open 
their  minds  to  those  thoughts  and  feelings  that 
rush  in  with  the  clear  apprehension  of  the  fact, 
that  the  barrier  between  the  eternal  and  the 
finite  world  has  been  thrown  open.  A  relig- 
ious horror  may  come  over  us,  so  that 

"  We  fain  would  skulk  beneath  our  wonted  covering-, 
Mean  as  it  is." 

Man,  indeed,  in  his  low  estate,  loves  the  super- 
natural ;  but  it  is  the  supernatural  addressed  to 
the  imagination,  not  in  all  its  naked  distinct- 
ness to  the  soul ;  it  is  the  supernatural  as  be- 
longing to  some  form  of  faith  more  connected 
with  this  world  than  the  future ;   or  regarded 


250  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

as  the  operation  of  limited  beings,  presenting  a 
semblance  of  human  nature,  on  whom  man  can 
react  in  his  turn.  But  let  us  imagine,  if  we 
can,  what  would  be  the  feelings  of  an  enlight- 
ened philosopher,  were  he  to  witness  an  un- 
questionable miracle,  a  work  breaking  through 
the  secondary  agency  behind  which  the  Deity 
ordinarily  veils  himself,  and  bringing  us  into 
immediate  connection  with  him.  We  can 
hardly  conceive  of  the  awe,  the  almost  appall- 
ing feeling,  with  which  it  would  be  contemplat- 
ed by  one  fully  capable  of  comprehending  its 
character,  and  alive  to  all  its  relations.  The 
miracles  of  Christianity,  when  they  are  brought 
home  to  the  mind  as  realities,  have  somewhat 
of  the  same  power ;  dimmed  as  they  are  by  dis- 
tance, and  clouded  over  by  all  the  errors  that 
false  Christianity  has  gathered  round  them.  If 
they  be  true,  if  Christianity  be  true,  if  its  doc- 
trines be  certain,  it  is  the  most  solemn  fact  we 
can  comprehend,  as  well  as  the  most  joyful. 
It  requires  that  our  whole  character  should  be 
conformed  to  the  new  relations  which  it  makes 
known.  All  things  around  us  change  their  as- 
pect. Life  and  death  are  not  what  they  were. 
We  are  walking  on  the  confines  of  an  unknown 
and  eternal  world,  where  none  of  those  earthly 
passions,  that  now  agitate  men  so  strongly,  can 


OF  INFIDELITY.  251 

find  entrance.  They  bear  upon  them  the  mark 
of  their  doom,  soon  to  perish.  But  from  the 
revulsion  of  feeling  that  must  take  place  when 
the  character  of  all  that  surrounds  us  is  thus 
changed,  and  the  objects  of  eternity  appear  be- 
fore the  mind's  eye,  it  is  natural  that  many 
should  shrink,  and  endeavor  to  escape  from  the 
view,  and  to  forget  it  amid  the  familiar  things 
of  life ;  clinging  to  a  vain  conception,  vain  as 
regards  each  individual,  of  an  unchanging  sta- 
bility in  the  order  of  nature. 

Vain,  I  say,  as  regards  each  individual. 
Whatever  we  may  fancy  respecting  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  present  order  of  things, 
to  us  it  is  not  permanent.  If  we  are  to  exist 
as  individuals  after  death,  then  we  shall  soon 
be  called,  not  to  witness,  but  to  be  the  subjects, 
of  a  miracle  of  unspeakable  interest  to  us. 
Death  will  be  to  us  an  incontrovertible  mira- 
cle. For  us  the  present  order  of  things  will 
cease,  and  the  unseen  world,  from  which  we 
may  have  held  back  our  imagination,  our  feel- 
ings, and  our  belief,  will  be  around  us  in  all  its 
reality. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  abuse  of  language  and 
confusion  of  thought  that  have  prevailed,  it 
would  be  idle  to  say,  that,  in  denying  the  mi- 
raculous character  of  Christianity,  the  truth  of 


252  ON  THE   LATEST  FORM 

Christianity  is  denied.  Christianity  was  in  it- 
self a  transcendent  miracle.  It  was  a  revel a- 
/  tion  from  God  to  men  of  their  eternal  relations 
1  to  Him,  —  an  assurance  from  Him  of  truths 
concerning  their  highest  interests,  of  which 
they  could  attain  assurance  from  no  other 
source.  It  was  God's  hand  raising  the  veil 
that  separated  the  material  from  the  spiritual 
world.  Christ  was  commissioned  by  God  to 
speak  to  us  in  His  name,  and  to  make  known 
to  us  on  His  authority  those  truths  which  it 
most  concerns  us  to  know;  and  there  can  be 
no  greater  miracle  than  this.  No  proof  of 
his  divine  commission  could  be  afforded,  but 
through  miraculous  displays  of  God's  power. 
Nothing  is  left  that  can  be  called  Christianity, 
if  its  miraculous  character  be  denied.  Its  es- 
sence is  gone ;  its  evidence  is  annihilated.  Its 
truths,  involving  the  highest  interests  of  man, 
the  facts  which  it  makes  known,  and  which  are 
implied  in  its  very  existence  as  a  divine  revela- 
tion, rest  no  longer  on  the  authority  of  God. 
In  evidence  of  those  truths  nothing  remains 
but  the  pretended  assertions  of  an  individual, 
of  whom  we  know  very  little,  except  that  his 
history  and  his  declarations  must  have  been 
most  grossly  misrepresented. 

It  is  indeed  difficult  to  conjecture  what  any 


OF  INFIDELITY.  253 

one  can  fancy  himself  to  believe  of  the  history 
of  Christ,  who  rejects  the  belief  of  his  divine 
commission  and  miraculous  powers.  What 
conception  can  such  a  one  form  of  his  charac- 
ter '?  His  whole  history,  as  recorded  in  the 
Gospels,  is  miraculous.  It  is  vain  to  attempt 
to  strike  out  what  relates  directly  or  indirectly 
to  his  miraculous  authority  and  works,  with 
the  expectation  that  any  thing  consistent  or  co- 
herent will  remain.  It  is  as  if  one  were  to  un- 
dertake to  cut  out  from  a  precious  agate  the 
figure  which  nature  has  inwrought,  and  to  pre- 
tend, that,  by  the  removal  of  this  accidental 
blemish,  the  stone  might  be  left  in  its  original 
form.  If  the  accounts  of  Christ's  miracles  are 
mere  fictions,  then  no  credit  can  be  due  to 
works  so  fabulous  as  the  pretended  histories  of 
his  life. 

But  these  supposed  miracles,  it  has  been 
contended,  may  be  explained,  consistently  with 
the  veracity  of  the  reporters,  as  natural  events, 
the  character  of  which  was  mistaken  by  the  be- 
holders. At  the  first  glance  it  is  obvious,  that 
such  a  statement  supposes  mistakes  committed 
by  those  beholders,  the  disciples  and  Apostles 
of  Jesus,  hardly  consistent  with  any  exercise  of 
intellect;  and,  at  the  same  time,  renders  it 
very  difficult  to  free  his  character  from  the  sus- 

22 


254  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

picion  of  intentional  fraud.  A  little  further 
consideration  may  satisfy  us,  that,  if  Jesus 
really  performed  no  miracles,  the  accounts  of 
his  life  that  have  been  handed  down  from  his 
disciples  give  evidence  of  utter  folly,  or  the 
grossest  deception,  or  rather  of  both. 

But  let  us  suppose  that  the  account  of  some 
one  or  more  of  the  mirades  of  Christ,  espe- 
cially if  detached  from  its  connection,  and  from 
all  that  determines  its  meaning,  admits  of  be- 
ing explained  as  having  its  origin  in  some  nat- 
ural event.  Take  any  case  one  will,  however, 
it  must  be  admitted,  that  the  explanation  is 
not  obvious,  that  it  is  conjectural;  and,  in  a 
great  majority  of  cases,  it  must  be  allowed,  that 
it  is  merely  possible,  and  that,  to  render  it 
deserving  of  notice,  the  principle  is  to  be  as- 
sumed, that  whatever  is  supernatural  must  be 
expunged  from  his  history.  We  will  suppose 
ourselves,  then,  to  have  tried  this  mode  of  in- 
terpretation on  one  narrative,  and  to  have  found 
it  improbable.  But,  suspending  our  opinion, 
let  us  pa^s  on  to  another  solution  of  a  similar 
character.  A  new  improbability  arises,  and 
after  that  a  new  one.  These  improbabilities 
consequently  multiply  upon  us  in  a  geometrical 
ratio,  and  very  soon  become  altogether  over- 
whelming.    Yet  I  speak  not  of  what  may  be 


OF  INFIDELITY.  255 

done,  but  of  what  has  been  done.  This  process 
of  misinterpretation  has  been  laboriously  pur- 
sued through  the  Gospels ;  *  and  the  result  has 
been  a  mass  of  monstrous  conjectures,  and 
abortive  solutions,  on  which,  as  we  proceed, 
there  falls  no  glimmering  of  probability ;  and 
which  continually  shock  and  grate  against  all 
our  most  cherished  sentiments  of  the  inestima- 
ble value  of  Christianity,  of  admiration  and 
love  for  its  Founder  on  earth,  and  of  reverence 
for  its  divine  Author. 

The  proposition,  that  the  history  of  Jesus  is 
miraculous  throughout,  is  to  be  understood  in 
all  its  comprehensiveness.  It  is  not  merely 
that  his  history  is  full  of  accounts  of  his  mira- 
cles ;  it  is,  that  every  thing  in  his  history,  what 
relates  to  himself  and  what  relates  to  others,  is 
conformed  to  this  fact,  and  to  the  conception 
of  him  as  speaking  with  authority  from  God. 
This  is  what  constitutes  the  internal  evidence 
of  Christianity,  a  term,  as  I  have  said,  often 
used  of  late  with  a  very  indistinct  notion  of 
any  meaning  attached  to  it.  The  consistency 
in  the  representations  given  by  the  different 
Evangelists  of  the  actions  and  words  of  Christ, 
as  a  messenger  from  God  to  men  ;  their  consis- 

*  See,  for  example,  Paulus's  "  Commentary  on  the  Gospels  "  ; 
and  his  "  Life  of  Jesus." 


256  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

tency  in  the  representation  of  a  character  which 
it  is  impossible  they  should  have  conceived  of, 
if  it  had  not  been  exhibited  before  them,  gives 
us  an  assurance  of  their  truth,  that  becomes 
clearer  in  proportion  as  their  writings  are  more 
studied  and  better  understood ;  and  in  connec- 
tion with  this  is  the  consistency  of  their  whole 
narrative ;  the  coherence  and  naturalness  wdth 
which  all  the  words  and  actions  of  others  bear 
upon  events  and  upon  a  character  so  marvel- 
lous, and  imply  their  existence. 

The  words  of  Christ,  equally  with  his  mira- 
cles, imply  his  mission  from  God.  They  are 
accordant  only  with  the  conception  of  him  as 
speaking  with  authority  from  God.  They 
would  be  altogether  unsuitable  to  a  merely 
human  teacher  of  religious  truth.  So  consid-i 
ered,  if  not  the  language  of  an  impostor,  they^ 
become  the  language  of  the  most  daring  and 
crazy  fanaticism.  I  speak  of  the  general  char- 
acter of  his  discourses,  a  character  of  the  most 
striking  peculiarity.  In  ascribing  them  to  one 
not  miraculously  commissioned  by  God,  they 
must  be  utterly  changed  and  degraded.  What 
is  most  solemn  and  sublime  must  either  be  re- 
jected as  never  having  been  spoken  by  him,  or 
its  meaning  must  be  thoroughly  perverted ;  it 
must  be  diluted  into  folly,  that  it  may  not  be 
blasphemy. 


OF  INFIDELITY.  .         257 

"  I  am  the  good  shepherd,"  said  Jesus,  "  and 

lay  down  my  life   for  my  sheep For 

this,  the  Father  loves  me ;  for  I  lay  down  my 
life,  to  receive  it  again.     None  takes  it   from 
me  ;    but  I  lay  it  down  of  my  own  accord.     I 
have  a  commission  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  a 
commission  to  receive  it  again.     This  charge  I 
received  from  my  Father."     There  are  but  two 
aspects  under  which  such  words  can  be  regard- 
ed, if  you  suppose  it  true  that  they  were  ut- 
tered by  Jesus.     You  must  say,  in  effect,  with 
the  unbelieving  Jews  who  heard  him,  "  He  is 
possessed  by  a  demon  and  is  mad.     Why  listen 
to  him  1 "     Or  the  view  which  we  take  must  i 
be  essentially  that  of  others  who  were  pres-( 
ent :    "  Can  a  demoniac  open  the  eyes  of  the  ) 
blind  r' 

Let  us  look  at  another  passage.  To  a  Chris- 
tian it  appears  of  unspeakable  grandeur  and  of 
infinite  moment.  It  presents  before  him  the 
Founder  of  his  religion  as  contemplating  the 
immeasurable  extent  of  blessings  of  which  God 
had  made  him  the  minister,  as  announcing 
man's  immortality  amid  the  sufferings  of  hu- 
manity, on  the  threshold  of  the  tomb. 

"I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  He 
who  has  faith  in  me,  though  he  die,  shall  live ; 


258  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

and  lie  who  lives  as  a  believer  in  me  shall  nev- 
er die.     Hast  thou  faith  in  this  1 " 

Let  us  go  on  to  the  sepulchre  of  Lazarus. 

"  I  thank  thee,  Father,  that  thou  hast  heard 
me ;  and  I  know  that  thou  hearest  me  always  ; 
but  I  have  thus  spoken  for  the  sake  of  the 
multitude  who  are  standing  round,  that  they 
may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me." 

We  must,  then,  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
sent  by  God,  commissioned  to  speak  to  us  in 
his  name ;  or  we  cannot  reasonably  pretend  to 
know  any  thing  concerning  him.  We  may 
think  it  probable,  that  he  was  a  reformer  of  the 
religion  of  his  nation,  who  preached  for  some 
short  time,  principally  in  Galilee ;  but,  having 
very  soon  made  himself  an  object  of  general 
odium,  was  put  to  death  as  a  malefactor,  amid 
the  execrations  of  his  countrymen,  who  then 
strove,  though  ineffectually,  to  suppress  his  fol- 
lowers. Or,  we  may  fancy  him  an  untaught, 
but  enlightened  philosopher,  whose  character, 
words,  and  deeds,  whatever  they  were,  have 
been  absurdly  and  fraudulently  misrepresented 
by  his  disciples.  Or,  as  the  Gospels  cannot  be 
regarded  as  true  histories,  we  may  go  on  to  the 
conclusion  at  which  infidelity,  in  its  folly  and 
ignorance,  arrived  within  the  memory  of  some 
of  us,  that  no  such  individual  existed,  and  that 


OF  INFIDELITY.  259 

Christ  is  but  an  allegorical  personage.  But  to 
whatever  conclusion  we  may  come,  if  the  repre- 
sentation of  him  in  the  Gospels  be  not  con- 
formed to  his  real  character  and  office,  no  foun- 
dation is  left,  on  which  any  one  can  with  reason 
pretend  to  regard  him  as  an  object  of  venera- 
tion, or  to  consider  his  teachings,  whatever 
effect  they  may  have  had  upon  the  world,  as  of 
any  importance  to  himself 

To  an  infidel,  whether  he  openly  profess 
himself  to  be  so,  or  whether  he  call  himself  a 
Christian,  the  history  in  the  Gospels  must  pre- 
sent an  insolvable  problem.  In  the  former 
case,  he  may  turn  from  it,  and  say  that  he  is 
not  called  upon  to  solve  it ;  but  in  the  latter, 
he  is,  by  his  profession,  bound  to  do  so.  He 
has  taken  upon  himself  the  task  of  explaining 
away  the  history  as  it  stands,  and  substituting 
another  in  its  stead ;  and  of  so  fabricating  the 
new  history,  that  it  may  afford  him  ground  for 
professing  admiration  and  love  for  the  real 
character  of  Christ. 

The  rejection  of  Christianity,  in  any  proper 
sense  of  the  word,  the  denial  that  God  revealed 
himself  by  Christ,  the  denial  of  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel  history,  or,  as  it  is  called  in  the  lan- 
guage  of  the   sect,  the  rejection  of  historical 


260  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

Christianity,  is,  of  course,  accompanied  by  the 
rejection  of  all  that  mass  of  evidence,  which,  in 
.the  view  of  a  Christian,  establishes  the  truth  of 
\his  religion.  This  evidence,  it  is  said,  consists 
only  of  probabilities.  We  want  certainty. 
The  dwellers  in  the  region  of  shadows  com- 
plain, that  the  solid  earth  is  not  stable  enough 
for  them  to  rest  on.  They  have  firm  footing 
on  the  clouds. 

To  the  demand  for  certainty,  let  it  come 
from  whom  it  may,  I  answer,  that  I  know  of 
no  absolute  certainty,  beyond  the  limit  of  mo- 
mentary consciousness,  a  certainty  that  van- 
ishes the  instant  it  exists,  and  is  lost  in  the  re- 
gion of  metaphysical  doubt.  Beyond  this  limit, 
absolute  certainty,  so  far  as  human  reason  may 
judge,  cannot  be  the  privilege  of  any  finite  be- 
ing. When  we  talk  of  certainty,  a  wise  man 
will  remember  what  he  is,  and  the  narrow 
bounds  of  his  wisdom  and  of  his  powers.  A 
few  years  ago  he  was  not.  A  few  years  ago  he 
was  an  infant  in  his  mother's  arms,  and  could 
but  express  his  wants,  and  move  himself,  and 
smile  and  cry.  He  has  been  introduced  into  a 
boundless  universe,  boundless  to  human  thought 
in  extent  and  past  duration.  An  eternity  had 
preceded  his  existence.  Whence  came  the  mi- 
nute particle  of  life  that  he  now  enjoys  ?    Why 


OF  INFIDELITY.  261 

is  lie  here  '?  Is  he  only  with  other  beings  like 
himself,  that  are  continually  rising  up  and 
sinking  in  the  shoreless  ocean  of  existence ;  or 
is  there  a  Creator,  Father,  and  Disposer  of  all  1 
Is  he  to  continue  a  conscious  being  after  this 
life,  and  undergo  new  changes ;  or  is  death, 
which  he  sees  everywhere  around  him,  to  be 
the  real,  as  it  is  the  apparent,  end  of  what 
would  then  seem  to  be  a  purposeless  and  in- 
comprehensible existence '?  He  feels  happiness 
and  misery;  and  would  understand  how  he 
may  avoid  the  one  and  secure  the  other.  He 
is  restlessly  urged  on  in  pursuit  of  one  object 
after  another ;  many  of  them  hurtful ;  most  of 
them  such  as  the  changes  of  life,  or  possession 
itself,  or  disease,  or  age,  will  deprive  of  their 
power  of  gratifying ;  while,  at  the  same  time, 
if  he  be  unenlightened  by  revelation,  the  dark- 
ness of  the  future  is  rapidly  closing  round  him. 
What  objects  should  he  pursue  1  How,  if  that 
be  possible,  is  happiness  to  be  secured  1  A 
creature  of  a  day,  just  endued  with  the  capaci- 
ty of  thought,  at  first  receiving  all  his  opinions 
from  those  who  have  preceded  him,  entangled 
among  numberless  prejudices,  confused  by  his 
passions,  perceiving,  if  the  eyes  of  his  under- 
standing are  opened,  that  the  sphere  of  his 
knowledge   is   hemmed    in   by   an   infinity  of 


262  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

which  he  is  ignorant,  from  which  unknown  re- 
gion clouds  are  often  passing  over,  and  darken- 
ing what  seemed  clearest  to  his  view,  —  such  a 
\  being  cannot  pretend  to  attain,  by  his  unassist- 
J  ed  powers,  any  assurance  concerning  the  unseen 
/  and  the  eternal,  the  great  objects  of  religion. 
If  men  had  been  capable  of  comprehending 
their  weakness  and  ignorance,  and  of  reflecting 
deeply  on  their  condition  here,  a  universal  cry 
would  have  risen  from  their  hearts,  imploring 
their  God,  if  there  were  one,  to  reveal  himself, 
and   to   make   known   to    them  their  destiny. 
Their  wants  have  been  answered  by  God  before 
'  they  were   uttered.     Such   is  the  belief  of  a 
/  Christian  ;  and  there  is  no  question  more  wor- 
I  thy  of  consideration,  than  whether  this  belief 
j  be  well  founded.     It   can  be  determined  only 
i  by  the  exercise  of  that  reason  which  God  has 
given  us  for  our  guidance  in  all  that  concerns 
lus.     There  can  be  no  intuition,  no  direct  per- 
ception, of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  no  meta- 
iphysical  certainty.     But  it  would  be  folly,  in- 
deed, to  reject  the  testimony  of  God  concerning 
all  our  higher  relations  and  interests,  because 
we  can  have  no  assurance  that  he  has  spoken 
through  Christ,  except  such  as  the  condition  of 
our  nature  admits  of. 

It  is  important  for  us  to  understand,  that,  in 


OF  INFIDELITY.  263 

all  things  of  practical  import,  in  the  exercise  of 
all  our  affections,  in  the  whole  formation  of  our 
characters,  we  are  acting,  and  must  act,  on 
probabilities  alone.  Certainty,  in  the  meta- 
physical sense  of  the  word,  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  concerns  of  men,  as  respects  this  life 
or  the  future.  We  must  discuss  the  subject  of 
religion  as  we  do  all  other  subjects,  when  men 
talk  with  men  about  matters  in  which  they  are 
in  earnest.  It  would  be  considered  rather  as 
insanity,  than  folly,  were  any  one  to  introduce 
metaphysical  scepticism,  concerning  causality, 
or  identity,  or  the  existence  of  the  external 
world,  or  the  foundation  of  human  knowledge, 
into  a  discussion  concerning  the  affairs  of  this 
life,  the  establishment  of  a  manufactory,  for  ex- 
ample, or  the  building  of  a  railroad  ;  or  if  he 
should  bring  it  forward  to  shake  our  confidence 
in  the  facts  of  which  human  testimony  and  our 
own  experience  assure  us,  or  to  invalidate  the 
conclusions,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  this  world, 
which  we  found  on  those  facts.  But  we  must 
use  the  same  faculties,  and  adopt  the  same 
rules,  in  judging  concerning  the  facts  of  the 
world  which  we  have  not  seen,  as  concerning 
those  of  the  world  of  which  we  have  seen  a 
very  little. 

If  it  can  be  shown,  according  to  the  common 


264  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

and  established  principles  of  reasoning  among 
(men,  that  Christianity  is  true;  if  it  can  be 
/shown,  that  to  suppose  it  not  true  is  to  sup- 
/pose  a  moral  impossibility,  we  need  no  further 
I  evidence.  -  When  we  have  arrived  at  this  con- 
clusion, our  ears  will  be  opened  to  the  accord- 
ant voice  from  the  earth  and  from  the  skies, 
which  bears  testimony  to  a  beneficent  Creator. 
We  shall  find  in  the  immortality  assured  to  us 
by  Christianity,  a  solution  of  the  problem  of 
our  present  life ;  a  solution,  which  the  very  ex- 
istence of  that  problem  confirms.  We  shall 
perceive,  that  all  which  has  been  taught  us  by 
God's  revelation  corresponds  with  all  that  our 
reason,  in  its  highest  exercise,  had  before  been 
striving  to  establish.  Religion  will  become  to 
us  a  conviction.  And  what  conviction,  I  do 
not  say  more  probable,  but  what  conviction,  of 
any  comparative  weight,  can  be  opposed  to  it  ? 
We  plan  for  the  future;  we  propose  to  our- 
selves some  object  to  be  attained  within  a  short 
period,  or  during  a  course  of  years.  But  we 
proceed  throughout  upon  probabilities  ;  upon 
a  probable  judgment  of  its  value,  of  our  power 
to  secure  it,  of  the  means  at  our  command,  and 
of  the  accidents  by  which  we  may  be  favored ; 
and  among  all  these  uncertainties  enters  one 
far  graver,  the  uncertainty  of  life  itself     Yet 


OF  INFIDELITY.  265 

we  go  on.  But,  if  Christianity  be  true,  there 
is  no  doubt  about  our  ability  to  attain  those 
objects  which  a  religious  man  proposes  to  him- 
self ;  there  is  no  dgubt  of  their  inestimable  val- 
ue ;  and  the  uncertainty  or  the  shortness  of  life 
at  once  ceases  to  enter  into  our  calculations. 

Of  the  facts  on  which  religion  is  founded,  we 
can  pretend  to  no   assurance  except   that  de-  j 
rived   from   the   testimony   of  God,   from  the  \ 
Christian   revelation.      He   who    has   received 
this  testimony  is  a  Christian ;  and  we  may  ask 
now,  as  was  asked  by  an  Apostle,  "  Who  is  he 
that  overcomes  the  world,  but  he  who  believes 
that  Jesus   is   the  Son   of  God  I "     Christian 
faith  alone  affords   such  consolation  and  sup- 
port as  the  heart  needs  amid  the  deprivations 
and  sufferings  of  life  ;  it  alone  gives  action  and 
strength  to  all  that  is  noblest  in  our  nature ;  it 
alone  furnishes  a  permanent  and  effectual  mo- 
tive for  growing  virtue ;  it  alone  enables  man 
to  act  conformably  to  his  nature  and  destiny. 
This  is  always  true.     But  we  may  have  a  deep- 
er sense  of  the  value  of  our  faith,  if  we  look 
abroad  on  the  present  state  of  the  world,  and 
see,  all  around,  the  waves  heaving  and  the  tem- 
pest rising.     Everywhere  are  instability  and  un- 
certainty.    But  from  the  blind  conflict  between 
men  exasperated  and  degraded  by  injustice  and 

23 


266  ON  THE  LATEST  FORM 

suiFering,  and  men  corrupted  and  hardened  by 
the  abuse  of  power,  from  the  mutual  outrages 
of  angry  political  parties,  in  which  the  most 
unprincipled  and  violent  become  the  leaders, 
from  the  fierce  collision  of  mere  earthly  pas- 
sions and  cravings,  whatever  changes  may  re- 
sult, no  good  is  to  be  hoped.  All  improve- 
ment in  the  civilized  world,  all  advance  in  hu- 
man happiness,  is  identified  with  the  spread  of 
Christian  principles,  of  Christian  truth,  of  that 
faith,  resting  on  reason,  which  connects  man 
with  God,  makes  him  feel  that  the  good  of 
others  is  his  personal  good,  assures  him  of  a 
future  life  of  retribution,  and,  by  revealing  his 
immortality,  calms  his  passions. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  addressed  your  under- 
standings, not  your  feelings.  But  the  subject 
of  Christianity  is  one  which  cannot  be  rightly 
apprehended  without  the  strongest  feeling ;  not 
the  transient  excitement  existing  for  an  hour, 
and  then  forgotten,  but  a  feeling  possessing  the 
whole  heart,  and  governing  our  lives.  Of  the 
form  of  infidelity  which  we  have  been  consid- 
ering, there  can  be  but  one  opinion  among  hon- 
est men.  Great  moral  ofiences  in  individuals 
are,  indeed^  commonly  connected  with  the  pe- 
culiar character  of  their  age,  and  with  a  pre- 


OF  INFIDELITY.  267 

vailing  want  of  moral  sentiment  in  regard  to\ 
such  offences  in  the  community  in  which  they 
are  committed.  This  may  be  pleaded  in  ex- 
cuse for  the  individual;  but  the  essential  na- 
ture of  the  offence  remains.  It  is  a  truth, 
which  few  among  us  will  question,  that  for 
any  one  to  pretend  to  be  a  Christian  teacher, 
who  disbelieves  the  divine  origin  and  authority 
of  Christianity,  and  would  undermine  the  belief 
of  others,  is  treachery  towards  God  and  man. 
If  I  were  to  address  such  a  one,  I  would  im- 
plore him  by  all  his  remaining  self-respect,  by 
his  sense  of  common  honesty,  by  his  regard  to 
the  well-being  of  his  fellow-men,  by  his  fear  of 
God,  if  he  believe  that  there  is  a  God,  and  by  j 
the  awful  realities  of  the  future  world,  to  stop 
short  in  his  course ;  and,  if  he  cannot  become 
a  Christian,  to  cease  to  be  a  pretended  Chris- 
tian teacher,  and  to  assume  his  proper  char- 
acter. 

If  we  have  taken  a  correct  view  of  the  state 
of  opinion  throughout  the  world,  you  will  per- 
ceive that  it  is  a  subject  of  very  serious  consid- 
eration, and  of  individual  action,  to  all  of  us 
who  have  faith  in  Christianity,  and  especially 
to  you.  Gentlemen,  who  have  devoted  your- 
selves to  the  Christian  ministry.  Every  motive 
that  addresses  the  better  part   of  our  nature 


268     ON  THE  LATEST  FORM  OF  INFIDELITY. 

urges  you  to  be  faithful  in  your  office.  A  sin- 
cere moral  purpose  will  strengthen  your  judg- 
ment and  ability ;  for  he  who  has  no  object  but 
to  do  right  will  not  find  it  difficult  to  ascer- 
tain his  duty,  and  the  means  of  performing  it. 
He  who  earnestly  desires  to  serve  his  fellow- 
men  is  so  strongly  drawn  toward  the  truth, 
as  the  essential  means  of  human  happiness, 
that  he  is  not  likely  to  be  turned  aside  by  any 
dangerous  error.  Our  Saviour  referred  to  no 
supernatural  illumination  when  he  said,  "If 
any  one  is  desirous  to  do  the  will  of  him  who 
sent  me,  he  will  know  concerning  my  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  from  God,  or  whether  I  speak 
from  myself"  What  you  believe  and  feel,  it  is 
the  business  of  your  lives,  and  this  is  a  great 
privilege,  to  make  others  believe  and  feel.  In 
the  view  of  the  worldly,  the  sphere  of  your  du- 
ties may  often  appear  humble ;  but  you  will  not 
on  that  account  break  through  it  to  seek  for  no- 
toriety beyond.  Deep  and  permanent  feeling  is 
very  quiet  and  persevering.  It  cannot  fail  in 
its  purposes.  It  cannot  but  communicate  itself 
in  some  degree  to  others,  and  it  is  secure  of  the 
approbation  of  God. 


R  E  M  A  E  K  S 


ON    THE 


MODERN  GERMAN  SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY. 


23 


EEMARKS 


MODERN  GERMAN  SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY. 


When  the  preceding  tract  was  first  pub- 
lished, it  was  accompanied  by  a  note  with  a 
title  answering  to  that  above  given.  This  note 
I  afterwards  had  occasion  to  illustrate  and  de- 
fend in  a  separate  publication.  But  the  char- 
acteristics and  tendencies  of  German  infidel 
philosophy  have  since  been  more  fully  devel- 
oped. It  has  thrown  aside  the  veil  of  pre- 
tended Christianity.  A  visible  process  of  dete- 
rioration has  been  going  on ;  and  the  effects  of 
that  philosophy  are  now  manifest,  not  only  in 
every  department  of  thought  and  literature,  but 
in  the  political  and  moral  condition  of  Ger- 
many. 

In  what  follows,  I  have  preserved,  with  great 
additions  and  changes,  the  illustrations  which  I 
formerly  gave.     The  account  thus  formed  may, 


272  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

perhaps,  possess  some  historical  value,  as  afford- 
ing a  general  view  of  a  state  of  transition  from 
crude,  unreasoning  belief  in  traditionary  relig- 
ious errors,  to  a  virulent,  unreasoning  rejection 
of  all  religious  truths.  The  aspects  which  the 
human  mind  assumed  during  this  transition 
state  are  well  worth  the  attention  of  him  who 
is  studying  the  causes  and  character  of  false 
opinions.  During  this  period  there  was  a  rank 
growth  of  such  opinions,  of  which  the  harvest 
is  now  gathering  in.  Our  purpose  will  confine 
our  attention  principally  to  those  concerning 
religion;  but  they  spread  through  every  de- 
partment of  thought. 

■  When  I  first  wrote  (about  thirteen  years 
ago),  the  school  of  theology  on  which  I  re- 
marked, with  its  peculiar  characteristic,  the 
attempt  to  amalgamate  Antichristian  opinions 
with  Christian  language,  was  still,  apparently, 
in  full  vigor.  It  had  been  gradually  develop- 
ing itself  and  spreading  for  more  than  half  a 
century.  But  it  contained  within  itself  a  prin- 
ciple of  decay.  The  partial  disguising  of  opin- 
ions in  unsuitable  language ;  the  keeping  up 
the  show  of  a  religious  purpose  in  undermining 
the  foundations  of  religion ;  the  making  a  dis- 
play of  mystical  feelings,  and  even  of  factitious 
enthusiasm,  the  cover  of  heartless  unbelief;  the 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  273 

ambiguous  use  of  words  and  propositions  in 
senses  very  different  from  their  established 
meaning ;  the  seeming  assertion  on  one  page  of 
what  is  contradicted  on  another;  the  playing 
fast  and  loose  with  the  reader,  —  all  this  re- 
quired a  certain  degree  of  ingenuity,  and  pro- 
duced the  impression  of  superior  wisdom  and 
insight  in  the  writer.  But  the  amalgamation 
attempted  was  impossible.  One  extravagance 
after  another  was  put  forth,  till  it  became  evi- 
dent that  nothing  new  was  to  be  said.  It  was 
a  field  in  which  no  fresh  reputation  was  to  be 
gathered.  Irreligion  under  this  form  had  done 
its  worst ;  and  absurdity  could  go  no  further. 
In  Germany,  therefore,  this  school  of  Anti- 
christian  theology  began  rapidly  to  decline,  from 
about  the  time  when  the  preceding  tract  was 
written.  Even  the  work  on  Christian  Doc- 
trines (Christliche  Glauhenslehre)  by  Strauss, 
published  in  1840-41,  cannot  be  considered 
as  properly  belonging  to  it,  since  that  writer 
relinquishes  all  pretence  of  inculcating  any 
religious  truth.  His  book  is  a  controversial 
attack  on  what  he  represents  as  being,  or  hav- 
ing been,  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  simply 
and  thoroughly  irreligious,  without  disguise. 
The  barrier  which  the  former  infidel  theology 
of  Germany  had  imposed  upon  itself,  formed 


274  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

out  of  some  remains  of  Christian  faith  and  feel- 
ing, and  the  abuse  of  Christian  language,  has 
given  way.  In  Germany  the  school  has  fallen 
into  discredit ;  and  the  boldest  of  its  writers, 
and  of  their  immediate  successors,  such  as 
Strauss,  are  regarded  by  many  with  little  re- 
spect, as  men  who  busied  themselves  about  ob- 
solete prejudices. 

In  much  of  what  follows,  therefore,  it  has 
become  proper  to  speak  of  that  as  past  and  his- 
torical, which  but  a  few  years  ago  might  be 
spoken  of  as  existing.  The  interest  of  the  sub- 
ject, however,  has  not  passed  away.  The  cloud 
in  which  it  was  enveloped  has  been  dispelled, 
and  we  now  see  distinctly  the  steps  by  which 
men,  at  the  present  day,  may  be  conducted  to 
the  rejection  of  all  religious  belief  The  pres- 
ent state  of  speculation  in  Germany  —  we 
cannot  say  of  religion  or  philosophy  —  is  the 
complement  of  the  past;  and  they  are  to  be 
viewed  in  their  connection  with  each  other. 
What  exists  now,  removes  all  doubt  concerning 
the  essential  character  of  what  preceded  and 
produced  it.  But  out  of  Germany  the  change 
has  not  apparently  been  so  great  among  the 
disciples  of  the  German  school.  By  many,  the 
first  stage,  the  stage  of  religious  mysticism  and 
of  the  abuse  of  religious  language,  has  not  yet 
been  passed  through. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  275 

The  remarks  which  follow  relate  principal- 
ly to  what,  with  reference  to  the  distinction 
just  made,  may  be  called  the  introductory 
school  of  German  infidel  theology.  As  may 
appear  from  what  has  been  said,  the  writers 
of  this  school  are  not  to  be  confounded  indis- 
criminately with  those  who  have  succeeded 
them.  While  it  prevailed,  the  air  was  full  of 
poisonous  miasmata,  but  the  worst  symptoms 
of  the  pestilence  they  were  breeding  had  not 
appeared. 

That  infidelity  should  have  taken  for  a  dis- 
guise the  name  of  Christianity  is  a  remarkable 
phenomenon,  which  may  be  explained  in  part 
by  the  fact,  that  the  principal  leaders  of  the 
Antichristian  school  were  placed  in  circumstan- 
ces in  which  the  profession  of  Christianity  was 
required,  either  by  the  nature  of  their  offices, 
as  professedly  Christian  teachers,  or  by  a  re- 
gard to  decorum  and  their  worldly  interests. 
But  they  were  surrounded  by  unbelief  It  had 
thoroughly  pervaded  the  metaphysical  philoso- 
phy of  their  country.  It  had  been  at  work 
throughout  the  literature  of  Continental  Eu- 
rope; and  they  had  neither  deep  piety,  nor 
moral  strength,  nor  power  of  comprehension 
and  reasoning,  to  resist  its  influence.  Chris- 
tianity they  abandoned  to  its  enemies.     They 


276  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

joined  those  enemies.  But  it  was  necessary 
to  have  something  that  might  be  called  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  they  accordingly  gave  that  name 
to  multiform  and  unstable  speculations  of 
their  own,  unconnected  with  any  established 
facts  or  principles;  and  in  framing  which  it 
seems  to  have  been  forgotten,  that  what  is  pro- 
posed for  belief  requires  some  evidence  of  its 
truth. 

These  speculations  were  favored  by  existing 
modes  of  thinking  and  writing.  In  rude  times, 
when  the  mind  is  struggling  with  half-formed 
ideas,  those  claiming  superior  wisdom  have 
usually  affected  an  obscure,  enigmatic,  paradox- 
ical style,  full  of  words  and  figures  remote  from 
the  apprehension  of  the  vulgar.  Dark  sayings 
are  characteristic  of  one  stage  in  the  progress 
of  the  human  intellect.  The  meaning  which  is 
not  clearly  understood  by  its  propounder  is 
thus  sheltered  from  investigation,  and  his  ora- 
cles are  enabled  to  escape  from  confutation  in 
the  darkness.  His  teachings  are  magnified  by 
mystery ;  and  the  disciple  thinks  himself  ini- 
tiated in  some  esoteric  doctrine,  too  profound 
for  common  minds.  Instead  of  the  care  with 
which  a  true  philosopher  endeavors  to  express 
real  knowledge  in  the  most  perspicuous  man- 
ner, there  is   a   constant   striving  to   disguise 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  277 

trivial,  erroneous,  and  extravagant  conceptions 
in  unusual  forms  of  language. 

The  same  phenomena  are  likely  to  occur 
whenever  any  great  revolution  takes  place  in 
men's  opinions.  In  such  seasons  mysticism 
flourishes.  The  mind  loses  its  customary  land- 
marks, distrusts  its  former  belief,  renounces  its 
former  guides,  and,  leaving  the  beaten  path, 
becomes  the  bewildered  follower  of  him  who 
professes  most  boldly  his  acquaintance  with  the 
unexplored  region  on  which  it  is  entering.  It 
is  confused  between  new  and  old  opinions,  and 
sees  nothing  distinctly.  Words  lose  their  for- 
mer meanings,  and  acquire  no  stable  significa- 
tions instead;  old  errors  and  essential  truths 
are  abandoned  in  common,  and  paradoxical 
novelties  are  enunciated  in  a  new  language, 
understood  neither  by  those  who  use  nor  by 
those  who  listen  to  it. 

I  shall,  therefore,  in  further  pointing  out 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  German  in- 
fidel school  of  theology,  begin  hy  remarking  on 
confusion  of  thought  and  unmeaning  language, 
connected  with  the  theory,  that  Christian  faith 
has  its  origin  in  the  mind  itself  independently  of 
the  Christian  revelation,  and  with  the  denial  of 
the  truths  of  religion. 

24 


278  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

These  characteristics  will  be  apparent 
throughout  the  passages  which  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  quote  or  refer  to,  but  may  be  first 
illustrated  from  the  writings  of  De  Wette. 
Perhaps  no  theologian  of  the  German  school 
had  more  direct  influence  on  opinion  out  of 
Germany,  though  this  influence  was  some- 
what disproportioned,  I  believe,  to  his  reputa- 
tion among  his  countrymen.  He  is,  however, 
a  fair,  or,  rather,  a  favorable  representative  of 
the  school.  One  of  his  last  publications  on 
the  theory  of  religion  appeared  in  1834,  in  a 
theological  journal.*  It  is  a  review  of  a  work 
in  defence  of  the  genuineness  of  the  writings  of 
the  New  Testament.f  Its  purpose  is  to  show 
that,  as  regards  establishing  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, all  works  of  this  kind  are  equally  un- 
necessary and  fruitless.  A  Christian's  faith, 
according  to  him,  is  not  to  be  founded  on  rea- 
soning. It  is  the  result  of  intuition,  of  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  truths  of  religion  ;  and  cer- 
tainty is  therefore  of  its  essence.  But  reason 
deals  with  probabilities,  and  can  afl'ord  no  cer- 
tainty.    In  this  article  he  gives  a  professed  ex- 

*  "  Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  edited  by  Ullmann 
and  Umbreit. 

I  "  Nachweis  der  Echtheit  sammtlicher  Schriften  des  N.  T.," 
by  Olshausen. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  279 

position  of  what  he  calls  the  "  New  Theology," 
which  it  had  been  the  main  purpose  of  his  the- 
ological life  to  establish.  It  might  be  sup- 
posed that  he  must  have  reflected  much  on  the 
subject,  and  have  been  able  to  give  an  intelli- 
gible exposition  of  it. 

"  The  greatest  and  most  pregnant  idea  of  the 
New  Theology,"  he  says,  "  and  one  the  estab- 
lishment of  which  is  the  main  business  of  my 
theological  life,  is,  that  the  doctrine  of  faith 
must  contain  no  metaphysics,  or  at  least  only  so 
much  as  is  necessary  for  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  faith  ;  that  its  essence  is  not  in  scientific 
propositions,  but  in  the  pious  consciousness  sci- 
entifically purified  and  enlightened."  * 

The  shadowy  and  shapeless  meaning  of  the 
sentence  I  have  quoted  escapes  in  any  attempt 
to  grasp  it.  But  this  fact  may  not  be  univer- 
sally admitted.  He  whose  own  conceptions  are 
vague  and  inconsistent  is  not  sensible  of  the 
want  of  definiteness  or  meaning   in  what   he 

*  "  Es  ist  die  grosste  und  fruchtbarste  Idee  der  neuern  Theolo- 
gie  (und  deren  Geltendmachung  ist  die  Hauptaufgabe  meines  the- 
ologischen  Lebens),  dass  die  Glaubenslehre  keine  Metaphysik 
oder  doch  nur  soviel  davon  enthalten  darf,  als  zur  klaren  Versland- 
igung  des  Glaubens  nolhig  ist,  dass  ihr  Wesen  nicht  in  wissen- 
schafilichen  Saitzen,  sondern  in  dem  wissenschafllich  gereinigten 
und  erleuchteten  frommen  Bewusstseyn  besteht."  —  Theohgische 
Studien  und  Kritiken,  first  number  for  1834,  p.  137. 


280  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

reads.  He  attaches  some  unformed  notions  to 
words  that  in  fact  convey  no  coherent  ideas; 
and  may  regard  himself  in  consequence  as  a 
profound  thinker,  able  to  discover  a  meaning 
which  less  wise  men  cannot  see. 

Let  us  examine  the  passage  more  carefully. 
Giving  to  the  particular  words  any  sense  which 
we  can  suppose  to  have  been  intended,  no  com- 
prehensible meaning  can  be  disentangled  from 
them. 

"  The  doctrine  of  faith  "  (that  is  to  say,  what 
is  proposed  for  religious  belief)  "  must  contain 
no  metaphysics,  or  at  least  only  so  much  as  is 
necessary  for  a  clear  understanding  of  the  faith": 

—  We  can  ascribe  no  sense  to  any  of  these 
words  but  their  obvious  one;  and,  this  being 
the  case,  there  is  no  intelligible  meaning  in  the 
proposition.     All  the  objects  of  religious  faith, 

—  God,  the  human  soul,  the  spiritual  world, 
the  principles  of  moral  action,  —  and  every 
other,  with  all  the  questions  that  arise  concern- 
ing them,  belong  to  the  province  of  metaphys- 
ical science.  The  proposition  with  its  conclud- 
ing qualification  is  equally  without  meaning,  as 
if  one  were  to  say,  that  a  geologist,  in  explain- 
ing his  doctrine  concerning  the  changes  which 
the  earth  has  undergone,  should  introduce  no 
physical  ideas,  or  introduce  them  only  so  far  as 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  281 

is  necessary  to  a  clear  understanding  of  his  the- 
ory. The  word  "  metaphysics  "  seems  to  have 
been  used  with  no  regard  to  its  proper  mean- 
ing, but  only  in  reference  to  the  accidental  and 
false  associations  which  it  may  carry  with  it,  — 
associations,  natural  enough  in  the  mind  of  a 
German  scholar,  of  something  adverse  to  the 
common  sentiments  of  men,  enveloped  in  bar- 
barous terms  of  science,  which  seem  used  to 
mystify,  not  to  explain,  —  something  crabbed, 
obscure,  and  unintelligible;  whereas  the  true 
science  of  metaphysics  is  only  good  sense  ap- 
plied to  the  highest  objects  of  thought ;  and 
good  sense  is  always  intelligible. 

But  to  proceed.  —  "  The  essence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  faith  "  (that  is,  what  is  essential  in  the 
doctrines  of  religion)  "  does  not  consist  in  sci- 
entific propositions  "  :  —  Every  faith,  or  belief, 
however  attained,  consists  in  the  belief  of 
truths,  real  or  supposed ;  and  these  real  or 
supposed  truths  are  to  be  expressed  in  words ; 
and  these  words  form  propositions.  Every  doc- 
trine is  a  proposition,  —  or  a  number  of  propo- 
sitions, that  is,  if  the  word  "  doctrine  "  be  used 
in  the  singular  to  denote  a  body  of  doctrines. 
If  the  sentence,  therefore,  have  any  meaning, 
it  must  depend  entirely  on  the  word  "scien- 
tific," 

24* 


282  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

But  science  is  only  knowledge,  or  what  is 
believed  to  be  knowledge,  digested  into  a  sys- 
tem. A  scientific  proposition  is  a  proposition 
making  part  of  such  a  system,  one  connected 
with  and  confirmed  by  other  propositions  sup- 
posed to  be  true.  It  is  asserted,  then,  that 
what  is  essential  in  religious  belief  does  not 
consist  of  propositions,  that  is  of  truths,  having 
any  such  relation  to  each  other  as  to  admit  of 
their  being  arranged  into  a  coherent  system. 
This  is  what  is  actually  asserted ;  what  was  in 
the  mind  of  the  writer,  when  putting  forth  this 
assertion,  cannot  be  conjectured  with  any  confi- 
dence. 

So  far  from  consisting  in  scientific  proposi- 
tions, "  the  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  faith  con- 
sists in  the  pious  consciousness  " :  —  The  "  es- 
sence of  the  doctrine  of  faith  "  must  mean  the 
essential  truths  which  are  the  objects  of  faith. 
"What  is  affirmed,  therefore,  is,  that  those  truths 
consist  in  "  the  pious  consciousness,"  —  namely, 
of  those  truths.  It  is  evident  that  words  can- 
not be  put  together  more  illogically  with  any 
show  of  meaning.  One  may  conjecture  some- 
thing of  the  intended  purpose  of  the  writer,  not 
from  what  he  here  says,  but  from  the  theory 
which  he  elsewhere  maintains.  This  theory,  as 
I  have  before  said,  is,  that  the  truths  of  religion 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  283 

are  directly  apprehended  as  such  by  the  mind 
through  a  faculty  which  he  sometimes  calls  con- 
sciousness, sometimes  presentiment,"^  and  some- 
times feeling.  With  this  imaginary  faculty  of 
apprehending  these  truths  he  confounds  the 
truths  themselves.  The  indistinct  meaning 
which  he  had  in  mind  was,  I  suppose,  some- 
thing like  this,  —  that  what  is  properly  to  be 
called  religious  faith  does  not  rest  on  truths 
which  may  be  proved  through  the  exercise  of 
reason,  but  consists  in  a  faculty  of  the  mind 
through  which  the  truths  of  religion  are  intui- 
tively discerned. 

"  The  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  faith  con- 


*  '*  Ahnung,"  presentiment: — As  used  for  a  scientific  term, 
Krug  (in  his  Dictionary  of  Philosophy)  states  it  to  mean,  "  the 
idea  of  an  object  which  has  not  yet  entered  the  consciousness  with 
clearness,  but  which  is  beginning  to  approach  it,"  —  die  Vor- 
stellung  eines  Gegenstandes,  der  noch  nicht  mit  Klarheit  in  die 
Bewusstsein  getreten  ist,  sich  aber  demselben  schon  zu  nsihern  be- 
ginnt.  I  suppose  that,  in  strictness,  the  word  denotes  a  pretended 
faculty  of  perceiving  such  ideas,  rather  than  the  ideas  themselves. 
It  seems  meant  to  express  "  a  dim  premonitory  consciousness  of  a 
truth  before  it  is  clearly  discerned." 

Apparently  this  conception  was  introduced  into  the  new  theol- 
ogy from  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus,  who  rested  his  belief  in  the 
existence  of  the  gods,  according  to  his  idea  of  them,  on  what  he 
calls  the  "  anticipation  "  {anticipation  TrpoXrj^is)  of  them  in  the  hu- 
man mind,  the  preexisting  notion  of  them  [prcenotio), —  existing 
before  instruction,  and  common  to  every  nation  and  every  class  of 
men.     (Cicero,  De  Natura  Deorum,  Lib.  I.  §^  16,  17.) 


284  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

sists,"  that  is,  the  essential  truths  which  are  the 
objects  of  religious  faith  consist  in  "  the  pious 
consciousness,  scientifically  purified  and  enlight- 
ened " :  —  We  may  translate  this  proposition 
into  words  that  apparently  express  its  intended 
meaning  thus :  —  The  mind  when  in  a  pious 
state  has  intuitions,  or  is  conscious  of  certain 
ideas,  which,  when  scientifically  purified  and 
enlightened,  become  the  truths  of  religion. 
Certainly,  men  in  a  pious  state  of  mind  have 
religious  conceptions  and  feelings.  But  this 
unquestionable  fact  afifords"  no  support  for  a 
new  theory  concerning  the  grounds  of  belief  in 
religion.  According  to  the  theory  under  con- 
sideration, the  only  proper  and  secure  ground 
of  belief  in  religion  is  consciousness  of  its 
truths.  Consciousness  is  absolute  certainty. 
To  qualify  it  with  the  epithet  "  pious,"  as  if 
something  more  than  simple  consciousness  were 
necessary,  shows  a  confusion  of  mind  in  which 
the  writer  did  not  discern  his  own  meaning. 
But  it  must  be  not  only  pious,  it  must  be  sci- 
entifically purified  and  enlightened.  It  ap- 
pears, then,  that  consciousness,  or  intuition, 
our  only  source  of  certain  knowledge,  requires 
to  be  corrected  and  modified  by  some  other 
knowledge  digested  into  a  science. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  285 

Such  is  the  account  which  was  given  by  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  teachers  of  German 
theology,  of  the  doctrine  which  it  had  been  the 
main  purpose  of  his  theological  life  to  explain 
and  defend.  But  I  have  not  quoted  the  pas- 
sage for  the  sake  of  illustrating  De  Wette's  char- 
acter as  a  writer,  but  for  the  more  general  pur- 
pose of  illustrating  the  prevailing  character  of 
modern  German  works  of  speculation.  Every- 
where in  these  writings  we  find  like  confusion 
of  thought,  and  a  similar  unintelligible  use  of 
language.  Propositions  are  so  vaguely  ex- 
pressed as  to  present  no  meaning  on  which  the 
mind  can  rest.  We  read  on  in  the  hope  that 
what  follows  may  afford  an  explanation  of  the 
intended  sense;  but  what  follows,  instead  of 
throwing  light  on  what  we  have  gone  over,  is 
itself  involved  in  equal  obscurity.  It  is  like 
pursuing  a  pretended  algebraic  process,  in  which 
the  value  of  an  unknown  term  in  one  equation 
is  to  be  determined  by  the  value  of  another 
equally  unknown  in  the  equation  which  suc- 
ceeds, and  so  on  to  the  end. 

But  this  sort  of  writing  is  of  great  antiquity, 
has  been  very  prevalent,  and  finds  many  admir- 
ers, who  are  struck  with  wonder  at  the  marvels 
which  may  be  produced  by  the  abuse  of  words. 
It  consists  not  merely  in  putting  together  words 


286  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

whose  sense  is  known  in  such  a  manner  that 
nothing  intelligible  is  the  result  of  the  combi- 
nation; but  in  employing  words,  often  newly 
fashioned,  or  newly  applied,  with  undefined  and 
undefinable  meanings,  —  familiar  words  with 
senses  new  and  old  which  are  confused  togeth- 
er, —  and  many-sided  words,  of  which  some- 
times one  and  sometimes  another  aspect  is  pre- 
sented to  the  reader. 

In  the  German  language,  the  significations 
of  many  words  are  more  unsteady  and  uncer- 
tain than  in  our  own,  or  in  the  Southern  lan- 
guages of  Europe.  Their  outline  is  undefined 
and  varying.  Words  have  not  been  determined 
to  precise  meanings  by  habits  of  accurate  usage 
and  associations  long  connected  with  them. 
They  do  not,  equally  as  with  us,  when  stand- 
ing in  certain  relations  to  other  words  and 
ideas,  present  invariably  and  instantaneously 
the  true  sense  required  by  the  connection. 
The  associations  and  implications  connected 
with  one  signification  of  a  word  become  con- 
fused with  those  connected  with  another ;  and 
even  significations  widely  distinct  are  con- 
founded together.  Thus,  to  illustrate  by  an 
example,  the  same  German  word,  Wunder,  sig- 
nifies either  a  miracle,  or  merely  a  wonder,  "  a 
wonderful  natural  object  or  event " ;    and  the 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  287 

rejection  of  the  miraculous  character  of  Chris- 
tianity has  doubtless  been  facilitated  by  the 
ease  with  which  the  mind  may  pass  from  one 
of  those  opposite  meanings  to  the  other,  on 
account  of  their  being  both  expressed  by  the 
same  word.  So,  likewise,  the  word  Glauhe  de- 
notes at  once  faith^  religious  faith,  and  beliefs 
that  is,  the  belief  of  any  supposed  truth  what- 
ever, and  more  especially  the  belief  of  self- 
evident  or  intuitive  propositions  ;  and,  together 
with  this,  it  is  used  to  denote  also  an  imagi- 
nary faculty  by  which  we  assent  to  such  prop- 
ositions, which  have  been  called  "  the  con- 
victions of  pure  reason."  Hence  has  fol- 
lowed great  confusion  of  thought.  I  will  give 
one  example  more  from  the  science  of  met- 
aphysics. Each  of  the  German  words  sinnlich 
and  sensual  —  the  latter  of  which  almost  seems 
to  have  been  adopted  into  the  language  for  the 
sake  of  the  equivoque  —  combines  the  mean- 
ings of  "  sensible,"  that  is,  belonging  to  or  per- 
ceptible by  the  senses,  and  of  "  sensual."  It 
has  been  attempted  to  introduce  into  our  lan- 
guage the  barbarism  of  using  "  sensual  "  as  if 
it  meant  sensible,  or  founded  on  the  senses  ; 
and  hence,  through  a  series  of  errors,  we  have 
heard  of  the  sensual  philosophy  of  Locke,  —  an 
epithet  which  from  its  associations  is  so  utterly 


288  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

inappropriate,  that,  even  if  it  had  the  meaning 
given  it,  good  sense  and  good  taste  would  for- 
bid its  use.  As  I  have  elsewhere  remarked, 
almost  all  the  words  expressive  of  religious 
ideas  have  had  a  new  sense  put  upon  them,  in 
which  they  are  familiarly  used.*  The  abuse 
has  made  inroads  into  our  own  language,  and 
thus  it  has  become  necessary  jealously  to  guard 
it,  or  its  whole  meaning  in  the  higher  depart- 
ments of  thought  will  be  broken  down,  the  cul- 
tivation and  growth  of  centuries  will  be  de- 
stroyed, and  it  will  be  reduced  to  a  waste  in 
which  the  wildest  speculations  may  flourish. 

Of  words  which  have  been  used  without  any 
definite  or  settled  meaning  we  have  a  notable 
example  in  the  passage  quoted  from  De  Wette. 
It  is  the  word  "  consciousness,"  Bewusstseyn. 
The  German  word  has  a  nebulous  meaning,  of 
which  that  of  "  consciousness  "  forms  only  the 
nucleus.  "  Consciousness "  in  our  language 
denotes  a  "  knowledge  of  what  passes  in  one's 
own  mind " ;  f  or  a  knowledge  of  the  present 
state  of  one's  own  mind.  It  carries  with  it  the 
idea  of  absolute  certainty.  This  is  its  only 
proper  meaning.  But  the  German  word,  Be- 
wusstset/n,  comprehends  the  sense  of  "  percep- 

*  See  the  preceding  tract,  p.  240.  f  Locke  and  Johnson. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  289 

tion  "  in  its  metaphysical  use,  of  "  sentiment  " 
considered  as  a  judgment  founded  on  or  con- 
nected with  feeling,  and  of  "  imagination  "  op- 
erating to  produce  belief  more  or  less  distinct, 
as  when  it  becomes  synonymous  with  Ahnung^ 
"  presentiment."  In  theology  it  has  been  used, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  denote  an  imaginary  fac- 
ulty of  directly  apprehending  the  facts  of  relig- 
ion as  such,  or,  to  use  another  term,  the  sup- 
posed apperception  of  those  facts.  It  is  not 
here  the  place  to  speak  of  its  vague  use  in  pop- 
ular language,  in  which  it  has  become  almost  a 
cant  word,  often  occurring  with  a  meaning  only 
to  be  conjectured.  But  to  all  the  senses  that 
have  been  expressly  mentioned,  the  idea  of  cer- 
tainty which  belongs  only  to  its  proper  signifi- 
cation has  continued  attached,  and  those  senses 
with  this  false  association  have,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  German  speculations  and  phraseol- 
ogy, been  transferred  into  our  own  language 
and  given  to  the  word  "  consciousness."  In 
further  explaining  the  subject  I  must  continue 
to  use  this  word  as  the  representative  of  the 
German  Bewusstseyn. 

The  history  of  its  introduction  to  its  present 
use  as  a  theological  term  is  given  by  the  eccle- 
siastical historian  Neander  in  a  discourse  deliv- 
ered by  him  (in  1839)  before  the  University  at 

25 


290  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

Berlin  in  commemoration  of  the  institution  of 
the  Protestant  Church  in  the  Mark  of  Bran- 
denburg.* He  represents  the  religion  taught 
by  the  Reformers  as  "  pervading  the  minds  of 
men,  and  producing  among  the  people  a  cer- 
tain common  consciousness  of  Christian  truth," 
which  is  "  the  witness  of  Christian  truth." 
"  The  name  I  use,"  he  says,  "  Christian  con- 
sciousness^ is  indeed  new ;  and  to  have  formed 
it  in  correspondence  with  the  nature  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  to  have  introduced  it  into  common 
use,  is  not  the  least  among  the  great  merits  of 
the  sainted  Schleiermacher,  whom  we  reverence 
as  the  teacher  of  Germany."  He  quotes  the 
words  of  his  colleague  Steifens,  who  had  said : 
"  There  are  expressions  which  in  themselves 
have  a  great  historical  significance."  By  the 
introduction  of  this  term,  "  it  was  as  if  through 
Schleiermacher  the  conception  which  all  men 
were  seeking  suddenly  became  clear  to  all, 
as  if  he  had  found  out  the  right  word  of  the 
riddle." 

What  the  riddle  was  is  not  explained,  and  I 
can  offer  no  conjecture  concerning  it.  But 
from  this  account  it  appears  that  its  solution, 
the   fortunate  discovery  of  the   mot  d'enigme^ 

*  Commentatio  de  Georgio  Vicelio. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  291 

"  consciousness,"  had  for  a  time  the  happy  ef- 
fect of  composing  religious  diiFerences  in  Ger- 
many and  bringing  men  to  an  agreement  in  its 
use.  This  agreement  in  the  use  of  the  word 
—  in  a  great  variety  of  senses  —  has  continued 
at  least  till  a  very  late  period  ;  but  the  other 
good  effect  of  its  introduction  has  not  been  last- 
ing. According  to  Neander,  "Christian  con- 
sciousness "  signifies  "  a  consciousness  of  Chris- 
tian truth  "  which  is  "  the  witness  of  Christian 
truth  " ;  that  is,  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  those 
facts  which  concern  man  as  an  immortal  being, 
and  of  which  it  has  been  supposed  that  no  as- 
surance can  be  obtained  except  through  the 
revelation  by  which  God  has  made  them  known. 
The  existence  of  this  form  of  intuition,  hereto- 
fore unknown,  should  have  been  proved  before 
so  much  importance  was  attached  to  it.  AVhat 
it  attests  as  Christian  truth  should  have  been 
defined.  According  to  Neander,  it  bore  testi- 
mony to  the  doctrines  of  the  early  Reformers, 
especially  of  Luther,  and  was  the  occasion  of 
their  rapid  spread.  If  this  were  its  true  office, 
it  must  have  lost  much  of  its  efficacy  in  modern 
days. 

However  that  may  be,  the  doctrine  of  the 
new  theology  was,  that  on  consciousness,  on  the 
intuitive   perception   of  the  facts    of  religion. 


292  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

Christian  faith  rests  as  its  only  sure  foundation, 
or  is  identical  with  it.  "  Faith,  as  such,"  says 
De  Wette,  "  is  free  from  doubt.  If  connected 
with  doubts,  how  could  it  produce  resolutions, 
afford  consolation]  Resolution  as  such,  conso- 
lation which  is  real,  are  both  directly  opposed 
to  doubt  and  to  the  deliberation  which  is  ever 
more  or  less  connected  with  it,  and  exclude 
them,  or,  more  correctly,  presuppose  that  they 
are  never  in  a  state  to  shake  the  feeling 
of  faith."  *  Whatever  else  may  be  thought 
of  these  sentences  as  rendered  into  English, 
they  are  perhaps  sufficiently  intelligible  in  re- 
spect to  the  point  for  which  I  have  quoted 
them. 

"  Faith,  as  such,  is  free  from  doubt "  :  —  We 
cannot  suppose  that  in  these  words,  which  are 
the  foundation  of  all  that  follows,  nothing  more 
was  meant  than  to  assert  the  truism,  that  per- 
fect faith  or  belief  on  any  subject  excludes  all 
doubt;  or  to  maintain  that  a  Christian  may 
and  should,  through  the  exercise  of  his  reason, 
attain  full  assurance  of  the  truth  of  his  relig- 
ion. Neither  proposition  can  afford  any  ground 
for  a  new  theory  of  religion.  The  meaning 
intended   is,  that    religious   faith,  as   such,   is 

*  Article  before  quoted,  p.  136. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  293 

intuitive  certainty;  and  the  purpose  of  what 
follows  is  to  maintain,  that  what  may  be  called 
faith,  or  religious  belief,  is  not  true  faith,  un- 
less it  possess  this  essential  characteristic. 

The  doctrine  that  the  mind  possesses  a  fac- 
ulty of  intuitively  discerning  the  truths  of  re- 
ligion is  not  only  utterly  untenable,  but  the 
proposition  is  of  such  a  character,  that  it  cannot 
well  bear  the  test  of  being  distinctly  stated.  It 
is  the  fundamental  proposition  to  be  maintained 
in  those  speculations,  the  end  of  which  is  to  set 
aside  equally  the  exercise  of  our  reason  and 
the  authority  of  God's  revelation,  as  the  foun- 
dation of  our  religious  belief;  yet  its  defenders 
shrink  from  presenting  it  in  broad  daylight. 
They  are  disposed  to  keep  it  out  of  view  behind 
a  cloud  of  words.  The  question  respecting  the 
existence  of  such  a  faculty  is  not  difficult  to  be 
decided.  We  are  not  conscious  of  possessing 
any  such  faculty;  and  there  can  be  no  other 
proof  of  its  existence.  We  are  conscious  that 
we  possess  no  such  faculty ;  and  there  can  be  no 
more  conclusive  proof  of  its  non-existence.  It 
is  unnecessary  in  strict  reasoning  to  add  any 
thing  more.  The  bubble  which  has  been  blown 
up  into  so  glittering  a  theory,  with  such  change- 
able colors,  bursts  at  the  first  touch  of  truth. 

But  much  more   may  be  added.     An   error 

25* 


294  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

which  has  taken  possession  of  the  mind,  espe- 
cially an  error  which  has  no  foundation  in  rea- 
son, and  consequently  has  never  been  subjected 
to  the  test  of  reason,  can  hardly  be  dislodged 
by  a  single  argument,  however  decisive.  Let 
"US  then  go  on  a  little  further.  Consciousness 
or  intuition  can  inform  us  of  nothing  but  what 
exists  in  our  own  minds,  including  the  relations 
of  our  own  ideas.  It  has  no  cognizance  of  ex- 
ternal facts.  It  is,  therefore,  not  an  intelligible 
error,  but  a  mere  absurdity,  to  maintain  that 
we  are  conscious,  or  have  an  intuitive  knowl- 
edge, of  the  being  of  God,  of  our  own  immor- 
tality, of  the  revelation  of  God  through  Christ, 
or  of  any  other  fact  of  religion. 

That  such  a  faculty  belongs  to  the  human 
mind,  that  men  have  within  them  such  a  sure 
guide  to  religious  truth,  is  a  doctrine  that  stands 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  whole  history  of  the 
working  of  men's  minds  on  the  subject  of  re- 
ligion,—  to  our  knowledge  of  the  gross  igno- 
rance and  of  the  degrading  superstitions  that 
have  prevailed  throughout  the  world,  and  are 
still  conspicuous  in  every  part  of  it.  But  the 
doctrine,  or  some  one  equivalent,  has  flourished 
amid  all  the  confusion  of  opposing  creeds.  The 
claim  to  a  power,  natural  or  supernatural,  en- 
abling its  possessor  clearly  to  discern  the  truth 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  295 

without  the  exercise  of  reason,  has  heen  made 
with  equal  confidence  by  men  asserting  contra- 
dictory errors.  It  is  not  an  invention  of  mod- 
ern times,  though  the  application  which  has 
been  made  of  it  may  be  novel.  In  maintaining 
error,  it  is  an  obvious,  and  often  the  only  plau- 
sible course,  to  confront  reason  with  a  claim  to 
infallibility. 

One  point  remains,  not  important  as  an  argu- 
ment against  this  imaginary  faculty,  but  deserv- 
ing attention  as  illustrating  the  character  of 
German  speculation.  De  Wette,  in  the  Intro- 
duction to  his  "Manual  of  Christian  Doc- 
trines," *  treats  of  the  essential  character  of  re- 
ligion, and  lays  down  the  elements  of  his  sys- 
tem. His  purpose  is  to  show,  that  religious 
ideas  arise  in  the  mind  through  a  process  of 
self-development.  After  giving  an  account  of 
this  process  he  says :  "  God,  freedom  [man's 
freedom  in  action],  and  immortality  cannot  be 
proved,  but  only  shown  to  be  necessary  ideas  in 
{of]  the  reason."  f 

"  The  truths  of  religion  cannot  be  proved  " :  — 
No  attempt,  therefore,  is  made  to  prove  them. 
That  ideas  or  conceptions  of  the  objects  of  re- 

*  "  Lehrbuch  der  christlichen  Dograatik." 
t  Vol.  I.  p.  9,  3d  ed. 


296  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ligion  arise  in  the  mind  from  any  cause  what- 
ever, supposing  that  they  do  so  arise,  is  no  evi- 
dence of  the  real  existence  of  those  objects. 
We  cannot  argue  from  the  former  fact  to  the 
latter,  in  this  any  more  than  in  any  analogous 
case.  We  might  as  rationally  infer  the  exist- 
ence of  fairies  and  mermaids  from  the  existence 
of  our  ideas  concerning  them,  or  that  of  the 
gods  of  Epicurus  from  the  "  presentiment "  of 
the  Epicureans,  or  the  reality  of  the  objects  of 
Grecian  or  Hindu  mythology  from  the  concep- 
tions of  them  developed  in  the  minds  of  the 
Greeks  or  Hindus. 

"  The  truths  of  religion  cannot  be  proved  " :  — 
What  is  meant  by  this  ?  A  truth  is  proved  of 
which  we  have  sufficient  evidence.  For  the 
truths  of  religion,  according  to  the  theory  we 
are  considering,  we  have  the  evidence  of  con- 
sciousness, and  what  evidence  can  be  more  de- 
cisive 1  Is  it  supposed  that,  while  we  have  an 
undoubting  belief  through  our  consciousness, 
the  understanding  may  remain  unconvinced  1 
There  is  no  hope  of  finding  meaning  or  cohe- 
rence in  a  doctrine  which  rests  on  such  irrecon- 
cilable propositions. 

"The  truths  of  religion  cannot  be  proved  " :  — 
This  aspect  of  the  theory  has  been  recognized 
by  many  of  its  disciples.     They  have,  in  conse- 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  297 

quence,  been  inclined  to  consider  religious  faith 
as  an  act  of  the  will.  The  truths  of  religion, 
according  to  them,  are  to  be  discerned  only  by 
the  ^' pious  "  consciousness.  They  are  addressed, 
not  to  the  understanding,  but  to  the  heart. 
They  are  not  subjects  for  examination  and  rea- 
soning, but  objects  of  feeling.  They  are  to  be 
received  with  childlike  docility.  The  state  of 
mind  insisted  upon  as  requisite  for  their  admis- 
sion may  bring  to  one's  recollection  the  exhor- 
tation of  St.  Paul :  —  "Be  not,  brothers,  chil- 
dren in  understanding  ;  be  as  free  from  malice 
as  children,  but  in  understanding  be  men."  * 

But  it  would  have  been  strange,  if  even  a 
German  theorist  had  left  his  system  so  wholly 
unsupported  as  that  of  De  Wette  appears  in 
the  last  quotation  from  him,  and  in  the  exposi- 
tions of  many  who  may  seem  to  have  adopted  it. 
He  does  not  do  so.  In  common  with  more  or- 
thodox makers  of  religious  systems,  he  provides 
it,  in  the  absence  of  any  help  from  reason,  with 
supernatural  aid.     He  says :  — 

"  Man,  as  we  have  seen,  carries  with  him  the 
germ  of  religion  in  the  faculties  of  faith  and  pre- 
sentiment. We  may  call  this  a  natural  capacity, 
since  it  certainly  falls  into  the  series  of  the  in- 

*  1  Corinthians  xiv.  20. 


298  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ner  phenomena,  and  belongs  to  the  inner  nature, 
but  more  properly  a  supernatural  gift  of  God, 
since  it  is  the  highest  of  all  inner  phenomena, 
placed  above  all  arbitrary  will  of  men,  and  pro- 
claims itself  to  be  a  property  of  our  self-subsist- 
ent,  eternal  essence.  We  discern  (ahnen)  in  it 
a  spark  of  the  divine  spirit,  for  God  in  his  rela- 
tion to  nature  is  first  to  be  discerned  by  us  in 
our  own  nature.  We  call  this  the  inner  divine 
revelation."  * 

Through  the  mockery  of  meaning  which  this 
passage  presents,  we  discover  what  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  final  account  of  the  words  "  faith," 
"  presentiment,"  and  consequently  of  their 
equivalent,  "  consciousness  " ;  namely,  that  they 
denote  a  supernatural  faculty  belonging  to  the 
human  mind,  which  assures  us  of  the  truths  of 
religion.  Should  any  one  holding  the  doctrine 
of  Calvin  respecting  the  natural  inability  of 
man  to  apprehend  the  truths  of  religion  as 
such,  maintain  that,  through  special  grace,  he 
has  supernatural  assurance  of  those  truths,  we 
might  easily  believe  him  to  understand  himself 
and  to  think  what  he  says ;  but  if  one  discuss- 
ing the  subject,  as  a  common  man  with  com- 
mon men,  assert  that  he  has  naturally  a  super- 

*  Lehrbuch  der  christlichen  Dogmatik,  I.  20,  21. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  299 

natural  assurance  of  any  truth  whatever,  the 
case  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  those  the  symp- 
toms of  which  are  not  likely  to  be  allayed  by 
reasoning.     Non 

"  Sunt  verba  et  voces,  quibus  hunc  lenire  doloreni 


According  to  De  Wette,  what  are  represented 
in  history  as  revelations,  so  far  as  they  have  any 
title  to  that  character,  are  manifestations  of 
"  the  inner  divine  revelation,"  made  by  inspired 
individuals  [Begeisterte)^  who  are  messengers 
of  God.  But  such  revelations  have  all  been 
mixed  with  error,  and  what  those  individuals 
have  taught  is  to  be  subjected  to  the  test  of  the 
"  inner  divine  revelation,"  and  has  no  authority 
but  what  it  derives  from  its  accordance  with 
it.*  The  connection  between  faith  and  histor- 
ical Christianity  consists  in  the  fact,  that  the 
influence  and  spirit  of  those  truths  w^hich  are 
internally  perceived  by  faith  were  developed  in 
Christ,  the  pattern  or  model  man,  who  found- 
ed a  community,  to  which  he  transmitted  that 
influence  and  spirit,  and  in  which  they  have 
continued  to  be  developed.  His  history  is 
properly  no  object  of  religious  faith.  No  new 
warranty  of  those  truths  is  given  by  their  hav- 

*  Ibid.  I.  26,  28,  et  seqq. 


300  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ing  been  taught  by  him.  The  earlier  Chris- 
tians  did   not   believe   them  for  this  reason.* 

*  Speaking  of  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity,  he  says:  •'  The 
warranty  of  these  truths  did  not  consist  in  their  having  been  taught 
by  Christ ;  for  ho'v  seldom  does  the  Apostle  Paul  appeal  to  the 

declarations  of  Christ A  properly  historical  knowledge  and 

examination  of  what  Christ  may  have  taught  belonged  not  at  all  to 
the  conditions  of  the  original  Christian  faith."  The  last  sentence 
is  distinguished  as  emphatic  by  the  mode  of  printing  in  the  origi- 
nal. See  the  article  by  De  Wette,  in  the  Theol.  Siudien  und  Kri- 
tiken,  pp.  113,  144. 

There  are,  according  to  De  Wette,  two  things  to  be  considered 
respecting  Christ's  teaching  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  —  one, 
whether  it  is  truly  reported,  the  other,  whether  considered  in  itself 
it  is  true  ;  whether  it  "  authenticates  itself  to  the  pious  spirit  as 
divine  revelation."  The  latter  consideratiop  is  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  the  former.  The  truth  contained  in  his  teaching  as  report- 
ed, "  whether  Jesus  taught  it  or  not,  carries  its  validity  with  it. 
Is  the  unity  and  holiness  of  God  more  true  because  Jesus  pro- 
claimed hi*  By  no  means.  His  name  can  as  little  add  any  thing 
to  the  truth  of  this  conviction  *  as  take  any  thing  from  it ;  and 
had  he  denied  it,  we  should  not  believe*him." —  Ueber  Religion 
und  Theologie,  2d  ed.,  p.  177. 

According  to  De  Wette,  our  Saviour  taught  the  unity  and  holi- 
ness of  God,  and  these  doctrines  are  to  be  received  because  they 
"  authenticate  themselves  to  the  pious  spirit."  According  to  later 
and  more  advanced  philosophers  of  the  German  school,  he  taught, 
or  should  have  taught,  pantheism,  the  doctrines  of  Spinoza  or  of 
Hegel,  doctrines  which  commend  themselves  more  effectually  to 
the  pious  consciousness.  If  indeed  he  had  anticipated  Spinoza, 
Schleiermacher  might  have  transferred  to  him  the  famous  eulogy 
(to  be  hereafter  noticed)  which  he  bestows  on  the  latter. 

*  It  becomes  necessary  to  observe,  that  here  and  elsewhere  the 
translator  is  not  responsible  for  the  want  of  grammar,  or  the  misuse 
of  language. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  301 

The  outline  of  his  history  is  true ;  but,  as  re- 
gards the  accounts  in  the  Gospels,  there  is 
much  that  is  questionable,  when  critically  ex- 
amined. These  accounts  are  to  be  regarded 
morally  and  spiritually,  rather  than  in  their  lit- 
eral meaning.  They  are  to  be  viewed  as  sym- 
bolical of  the  ideal  in  religion,  by  which  De 
Wette  means  the  truths  of  religion  as  recog- 
nized by  consciousness.  Thus  the  accounts 
may  have  ideal  truth  without  historical  real- 
ity, and,  apart  from  all  inquiry  into  their  au- 
thenticity, may  serve  for  spiritual  edification. 
The  ascription  of  a  symbolical  character  to  the 
Gospel  history  is  a  characteristic  of  the  specu- 
lations of  De  Wette,  borrowed  from  Kant ;  and, 
in  adopting  and  applying  this  principle  he  was 
one  of  the  theologians  who  prepared  the  way 
for  the  extravagances  of  Strauss. 

De  Wette  says,  in  a  passage  already  quoted :  — 
"  Is  the  unity  and  holiness  of  God  more  true 
because  Jesus  proclaimed  it  I  By  no  means." 
This  assertion  can  have  no  bearing  on  the  point 
which  he  is  endeavoring  to  maintain,  till  it  is 
converted  into  a  general  proposition,  as  fol- 
lows :  —  The  truths  of  religion  are  not  more 
true  because  they  were  taught  by  Christ.  One 
may  add,  with  De  Wette,  Certainly  not ;  —  that 
is,  he  may  do  so  if  he  is  able  to  connect  any 


302  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

meaning  with  the  expression  of  making  a  truth 
more  true.  But  this  assertion  is  not  what  is 
needed  to  confirm  the  doctrine  which  the  writer 
is  endeavoring  to  maintain.  A  very  different 
one  is  required.  It  is,  that  no  new  evidence  of 
the  truths,  or,  to  use  another  term,  of  the  facts 
of  religion,  can  be  afforded  by  a  revelation  from 
God.  It  must  be  maintained,  that  we  are  al- 
ready fully  possessed  of  evidence  which,  being 
conclusive  in  itself,  annihilates  the  value  of  all 
other.  Yet  the  futile  sophism  I  have  adverted 
to,  that  truth  is  not  more  true  because  it  was 
taught  by  Christ,  has  been  current ;  though  I 
do  not  recollect  to  have  seen  it  put  forth  by  an 
English  writer  of  any  note. 

On  what  ground,  then,  did  these  theorists 
contend  that  their  doctrines  were  to  be  called 
Christianity  ]  —  for  they  insisted  on  retaining 
that  name.  It  was  this  ;  —  according  to  them, 
their  doctrines  were  the  teachings  of  "  the  in- 
ner divine  revelation  "  ;  and  with  these  teach- 
ings the  doctrines  of  Christ,  so  far  as  they  can 
be  ascertained,  may  be  considered  as  coincident. 
I  say,  so  far  as  they  can  be  ascertained ;  for 
we  are  told,  that  "  one  finds  himself  entangled 
in  great  difficulties  in  attempting  to  ascertain 
the  true  doctrine  of  Jesus  from  the  Gospels  "  ; 
that  "  it  is  very  differently  and  ambiguously  re- 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  303 

ported  by  the  Evangelists  "  ;  that,  "  according 
to  John,  it  was  not  the  same  as  according  to  the 
first  three  Evangelists  "  ;  —  and  that,  in  regard 
to  his  history  as  given  in  the  Gospels,  there  are 
similar  difficulties ;  that  "  we  find  in  it  many- 
contradictions,  chasms,  enigmas,  and  mysteries  " ; 
that  "  but  few  at  the  present  day  can  receive 
the  miracles  as  such,  and  that  there  is  great 
difficulty  in  separating  the  miraculous  aspect 
[of  a  relation]  from  the  proper  fact  [which  was 
the  foundation  of  it],  and  in  comprehending 
how  the  Apostles  should  have  seen  miracles 
where  there  were  none "  ;  *  that,  "  in  sum, 
these  pretended  contemporary  relations  are 
very  far  from  approving  themselves  as  such  by 
their  internal  character ;  and  that  they  trans- 

*  I  leave  this  sentence  standing^  as  translated  from  the  first  edi- 
tion of  De  Wette's  work  (page  151),  which  was  published  in  1815, 
not  having  the  second,  which  appeared  in  1821,  at  hand  when  I  first 
wrote.  In  the  second  edition  it  reads  thus  :  —  "  There  are  many  of 
the  marvels  ( Wunder)  related  by  thera  [the  Evangelists],  that  but 
few  now-a-days  can  receive  as  pure  historical  facts,  and  there  is 
great  difficulty  in  one's  forming  for  himself  a  livujg,  original  view  of 
them  {eine  lebendige  ursprilngliche  Ansicht  davon)  ^  The  words 
relating  to  the  Apostles  are  omitted.  It  is  apparent  that  in  the  ear- 
lier written  of  the  two  sentences  the  word  Wunder  denotes  a  mira- 
cle^ in  the  later  written,  a  marvel,  corresponding  to  the  ambiguous 
meaning  of  the  word  before  pointed  out.  A  comparison  of  them  to- 
gether, likewise  illustrates  the  gradual  progress  from  less  to  more 
open  scepticism  which  characterized  the  theology  of  the  times. 


304  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

mit  to  us  the  history  of  Jesus  in  a  form  in 
which  we  cannot  readily  receive  it."  * 

Such  was  the  relation  of  the  new  theology  to 
Christianity,  —  a  relation  which  afforded  no 
reasonable,  nor  even  intelligible,  motive  for  as- 
suming its  name,  or  for  representing  the  doc- 
trines taught  by  that  theology  as  coincident 
with  those  of  Christ.  But  the  absurdity  of 
calling  the  new  theory  by  the  name  of  Chris- 
tianity did  not  stop  here.  It  was  further  pre- 
tended, that  this  theory  alone  furnished  the  in- 
ternal evidence  of  our  religion  in  the  testimony 
of  consciousness,  and  that  this  was  the  only  evi- 
dence on  which  it  could  rest.  But  this  pre- 
tence of  placing  Christianity  on  unassailable 
ground,  upon  what  was  falsely  called  its  inter- 
nal evidence,  —  this  theory,  that  the  facts  which 
it  reveals  are  directly  perceived  by  the  mind,  — 
was  utterly  inconsistent  with  any  belief  in 
Christianity  as  a  revelation  from  God.  The 
language  of  religion  has  been  so  abused  by  the 
writers  of  this  school,  that  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  say  that  I  use  those  words  in  their 
customary  and  proper  sense.  No  rational  man 
can  suppose  that  God  has  miraculously  revealed 
facts  which  the  very  constitution  of  our  nature 
enables  us  directly  to  perceive. 

.  *  De^Wette,  Ueber  Religion  und  Theologie,  2d  ed.,  pp.  178, 179. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  305 

Some  of  the  earlier  English  Deistical  writers 
(Lord  Herbert  may  be  cited  as  an  example), 
though  repelled  from  Christianity  by  the  errors 
which  in  their  day  were  incorporated  in  the 
representations  given  of  it,  still  maintained  doc- 
trines which  are  essentially  truths  of  religion, 
and  consequently  thus  far  coincident  with  the 
teaching  of  Christ.  Had  this  been  the  case 
with  the  infidel  theologians  of  Germany,  there 
might  have  seemed  to  be  some  pretext  for  call- 
ing their  systems  by  the  name  of  Christianity. 
But  such  was  not  the  case.  Their  doctrines 
on  the  most  important  subjects,  the  doctrines 
maintained  by  the  most  noted  of  their  num- 
ber, were  not  in  accordance  with,  but  in  oppo- 
sition to,  the  truths  taught  us  by  God  through 
Christ. 

If  there  be  any  fact  of  which  we  are  assured 
by  revelation,  it  is  that  of  man's  capacity  of  at- 
taining an  immortal  existence.  "  I  am  the  res- 
urrection and  eternal  life,"  *  said  our  Saviour  ; 
"  whoever  believes  in  me,  though  he  die,  shall 
live."  On  this  truth  the  whole  fabric  of  Chris- 
tianity rests.  The  doctrine  of  immortality  was 
the  foundation  of  all  that  he  taught  his  disci- 

*  'H  ^(OT),  —  which  cannot  properly  be  expressed  in  English  but 
by  the  terms  "  eternal  life,"  or  "  eternal  blessedness." 
26  * 


306  THE  MODERN   GERMAN 

pies,  of  all  his  presentations  of  duty,  his  exhor- 
tations, his  encouragements,  and  his  warnings. 
He  draws  no  motives  from  merely  earthly  con- 
siderations. He  does  not  speak  as  a  merely 
human  teacher.  There  is  a  single  passage 
which  may  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  form  an  ex- 
ception to  these  remarks ;  but  its  seeming,  not, 
I  think,  real  incongruity,  only  serves  to  illus- 
trate more  strongly  the  essential,  distinguishing 
character  of  his  teaching.*  Without  the  belief 
of  this  doctrine  there  can  be  no  religion  ;  —  for 

*  I  refer  to  the  passage,  Luke  xiv.  7-11,  in  which  our  Lord 
directs  a  guest  to  take  the  lowest  seat  at  an  entertainment,  that 
when  his  inviter  comes  he  may  be  told  by  him  to  go  up  higher, 
and  may  thus  be  honored  in  the  presence  of  the  other  guests. 
This  is  not,  I  conceive,  a  literal  direction.  It  is  called  by  the 
Evangelist  a  "  parable  "  ;  and  I  am  not  aware  that  that  name  was 
ever  applied  to  a  simple  precept  or  maxim  of  conduct  to  be  under- 
stood literally.  So  to  use  it  would  be  contrary  to  its  etymology, 
which  implies  a  comparison. 

The  occasion  and  meaning  of  this  parable  may  be  thus  ex- 
plained. Like  many  other  parables  of  our  Lord,  it  referred  to,  and 
was  apparently  suggested  by,  something  immediately  present. 
The  Pharisees  and  Teachers  of  the  Law  were,  doubtless,  those 
who,  after  their  fashion,  chose  out  the  higher  places  at  table. 
They  likewise  considered  themselves  as  being,  through  their  sanc- 
tity, entitled  to  the  highest  places  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven. 
The  blessings  of  this  kingdom  are  often  spoken  of  under  the  figure 
of  a  feast,  as  they  are  in  this  chapter,  in  the  fifteenth  verse  and  what 
follows  it.  It  was  against  the  peculiar  claim  to  those  blessings 
which  they  thought  themselves  to  possess,  that  the  parable  was,  as 
I  conceive,  directed,  —  against  their  arrogance  and  presumption. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  307 

what  can  any  truths  of  religion,  any  truths  re- 
lating to  the  eternal  and  the  unseen,  concern 
the  feelings  and  the  conduct  of  beings  whose 
existence  is  limited  to  a  few  years  in  this  world 
of  the  senses  1 

What,  then,  was  the  doctrine  of  the  new  the- 
ology on  this  subject]  De  Wette,  in  his  work 
"  On  Eeligion  and  Theology,"  treats  of  the  soul 
and  of  "  its  immortality,  or  more  correctly,"  as 
he  says,  "  its  eternity,"  —  an  eternity,  as  he  ex- 
plains himself,  having  equal  relation  to  the 
past  and  the  future.  Its  nature  can  be  appre- 
hended only  by  the  consciousness,  by  "  presen- 
timent" and  "faith,"  not  by  the  understanding. 
So  apprehended,  it  appears  free  from  all  rela- 
tions to  time  and  space,  it  "  presents  a  living 
point  of  the  eternal  being."  If  he  understood 
himself,  and  I  understand  him,  he  teaches  that 
eternity  is  an  essential  attribute  of  the  soul. 
The  importance  of  conceiving  of  it  as  having 
no  relation  to  time  and  space  is  strongly  in- 
sisted upon,  though  it  is  not  explained  what 
meaning  this  can  have,  except  that  it  does  not 
exist  anywhere,  or  during  any  time.  Forget- 
ting his  own  precept,  that  the  doctrine  of  faith 
must  contain  nothing  metaphysical,  or  at  least 
only  so  much  as  is  necessary  for  its  clear  expla- 
nation, he  involves  the  subject  in  the  gross  ob- 


308  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

scurity  of  German  transcendental  philosophy, 
"  The  doctrine  of  Kant,"  he  says,  "  concerning 
the  subjectivity  of  the  forms  of  time  and  space, 
is  of  immeasurable  importance  for  the  clear 
view  of  religion."  This  alone  can  free  us  from 
doubts  concerning  the  eternity  of  the  soul. 

But,  upon  emerging  from  this  darkness,  we 
find  the  propositions  which  concern  this  funda- 
mental truth  of  religion  plainly  expressed,  or 
rather,  I  should  say,  with  so  much  plainness 
that  their  bearing  is  quite  intelligible. 

"  The  idea  of  a  continuance  after  death,"  he 
says,  "  is  very  common,"  but  "  death  destroys 
our  temporal  and  local  existence,  and  after  it, 
therefore,  our  eternal  being  must  pass  out  of 
space  and  time."  "  We  must  not  imagine  that 
after  death  we  shall  commence  a  new  period  of 
existence  like  the  present,  and  still  less,  that  we 
shall  have  a  like,  though  more  noble  and  splen- 
did, dwelling-place."  "  If  we  speak  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  soul  after  death  in  time  and 
space,  we  are  compelled  to  inquire  after  its 
preexistence.  For  an  existence  a  parte  post 
supposes  an  existence  a  parte  ante;  and  the 
latter  presents  even  more  difficulties  than  the 
former.  Did  we  exist  before  birth,  why  have 
we  no  remembrance  of  it  %  And,  if  no  con- 
sciousness of  this  state  remain  to  us,  how  wiU 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  30d 

a  consciousness  of  our  present  earthly  life  re- 
main to  us  after  death  1  And  yet  this  is  pre- 
cisely what  the  most  of  men  are  concerned 
about.  They  wish  to  take  with  them  their 
consciousness,  their  remembrance  of  this  life 
into  the  other.     The  pious  man  who  has  a  clear 

understanding   of  his   faith can   only 

laugh  at  the  solicitude  about  the  consciousness, 
as  we  should  laugh  at  the  child  who  should 
be  afraid  that  when  grown  up  it  could  no  long- 
er play  with  dolls."  "  In  death  we  shall  lose 
this  consciousness,  which  is  only  the  growth 
of  the  world  of  the  senses,  and  is  connected 
with  it,  and  shall  receive  instead  a  higher  con- 
sciousness^ of  which  we  have  now  no  conception." 
"  The  idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  should 
as  little  serve  for  indicating  to  us  in  the  pros- 
pect a  compensation  for  this  life  when  we  are 
obliged  to  quit  it,  as  for  filling  us  with  super- 
stitious hopes  concerning  a  much  happier  life 

hereafter ; it  should  teach  us  to  live  here 

every  moment  in  eternity,  and  to  think  and 
conduct  ourselves  worthily  of  it.  And  to  that 
end  we  should  not  direct  a  curious  or  longing 
glance  to  what  may  await  us  after  death,  but, 
fixing  our  eyes  steadily  on  death  and  on  our 
perishable  lot,  and  going  forward  to  meet  it 
calmly,  find  already  here  the  eternal  and  un- 


310  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

changeable,  namely,  in  our  own  breasts,  in  the 
higher  worth  of  our  spiritual  essence."  * 

The  concluding  sentences  of  this  extract  af- 
ford a  specimen  of  a  common  characteristic  of 
writers  of  this  class,  —  an  attempt  to  connect 
the  nobler  feelings  which  true  religion  inspires 
with  the  doctrines  that  they  have  substituted  in 
its  place,  —  a  sickly  glimmering  of  sentiment 
that  shows  amid  the  surrounding  darkness  like 
the  phosphoric  light  generated  by  corruption. 

Throughout  the  speculations  of  the  new  the^ 
ology,  as  in  what  we  have  just  quoted,  we  find 
the  conception  of  the  eternity  of  the  soul  dis- 
connected from  the  belief  of  the  personal  im- 
mortality of  individual  men,  —  an  eternity  in 
which  the  soul  has  undergone  and  will  undergo 
a  succession  of  essential  changes.  There  has 
been  current  both  in  ancient  and  in  modern 
times  a  vague  notion  that  the  same  soul  may 
pass  through  different  states  of  existence,  losing 
its  consciousness  and  acquiring  a  new  one  at 
each  transition,  and  thus  form  a  succession  of 
individuals,  each  with  a  distinct  personality. 
But,  in  maintaining  this  doctrine,  there  has 
been  no  attempt  to  answer  the  question,  What 
constitutes  it  the  same  souH     Till  this  ques- 

*  Ueber  Religion  und  Theologie,  pp.  20-26. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  311 

tion  is  answered,  the  doctrine  is  only  a  confu- 
sion of  words  without  meaning. 

The  soul  of  a  man  is  the  man  himself  It  is 
the  feeling,  thinking,  conscious  being.  What- 
ever may  be  affirmed  of  an  individual  as  a  per- 
ceptive, intelligent,  conscious  being  may  be  af- 
firmed of  his  soul,  —  and  nothing  else.  To 
maintain  that  the  same  soul  may  constitute  a 
different  individual,  is  equivalent  to  maintaining 
that  an  individual  remaining  the  same  may  be- 
come another  individual.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, as  we  have  seen,  for  one  to  form  an  imag- 
ination, though  not  a  rational  conception,  of  his 
soul  as  existing  separate  from  himself  Pro- 
ceeding, therefore,  on  this  imagination,  we  may 
ask.  What  personal  interest  can  any  one  have 
in  the  future  fate  of  this  soul,  which  is  not  him- 
self] 

Such  was  the  teaching  of  the  new  theology 
in  opposition  to  that  truth  which  it  most  con- 
cerns men  to  believe.  The  pretended  religion 
of  consciousness,  of  the  feelings,  and  of  "  faith," 
tended  directly  to  the  destruction  of  all  rational 
belief  in  religion,  and  of  all  true  religious  feel- 
ing and  principle.  Its  tendency  w^as  obvious 
from  the  first,  and  soon  became  clearly  devel- 
oped in  its  workings.  It  passed,  by  scarcely 
sensible  degradations,  into  the  grossest  forms  of 


312  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

irreligion.  In  its  earliest  stages  it  connected 
itself  with  attacks  on  the  credibility  of  the  Gos- 
pels, and  with  the  denial  of  the  possibility  of 
miracles.  It  even  allied  itself  with  the  panthe- 
ism of  Spinoza,  and  of  the  later  German  meta- 
physicians, the  successors  of  Kant.  Still  talk- 
ing about  Christianity,  and  still  claiming  to  be 
a  sort  of  religion,  it  made  some  show  of  itself  in 
the  works  of  such  writers  as  Strauss  ;  —  till  at 
last  this  school  of  speculation  has  arrived  at 
its  final  result  in  the  abnegation  of  all  religious 
principle,  and  the  contempt  of  morality,  which 
are  the  boast  of  many  of  those  who  form  the 
party  calling  itself  "  Young  Germany." 

The  character  of  the  new  theology  made 
itself  manifest  in  its  effects  on  the  popular 
literature  of  Germany  contemporary  with  it. 
Goethe  was  then  its  acknowledged  head.  His 
ideas  of  religion,  as  he  professes  in  his  autobi- 
ography, were  derived  essentially  from  the  sys- 
tem of  Spinoza,  of  whom  early  in  life  he  was, 
as  he  says,  "  the  enthusiastic  disciple,  and 
the  most  decided  worshipper."*  He  professed 
himself  to  be  a  believer  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul ;  —  in  what  sense  of  those  words  we 

*  Aus  meinera  Leben,  Book  XIV. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  313 

shall  immediately  see.  I  doubt  much  that  in 
his  writings  one  can  find  an  unequivocal  recog- 
nition of  the  truth  of  that  doctrine  in  any  sense 
whatever ;  but  his  opinions  are  to  be  gathered 
from  some  records  of  his  conversation  preserved 
by  Falk  and  Eckermann.  According  to  Falk, 
on  the  day  of  Wieland's  funeral,  "  there  was  a 
tone  of  solemnity  in  Goethe  which  one  rarely 
witnessed  "  ;  and  "  our  conversation  on  this  oc- 
casion turned  on  topics  out  of  the  sphere  of  the 
senses,  which  he  generally  avoided,  if  he  did  not 
regard  them  with  contempt."  Wieland's  soul 
he  conceived  to  be  possessed  of  too  high  powers 
ever  to  perish.  He  gave  his  theory  of  souls, 
probably,  I  think,  improvised  for  his  admiring 
listener.  Borrowing  a  term  from  Leibnitz,  as 
one  adapted  to  express  the  most  simple  form  of 
being,  he  represented  all  souls  as  "monads," 
which  monads,  he  taught,  are  the  animating 
and  formative  principles  of  all  that  exists. 
There  are  monads  of  the  sun  and  of  the  stars. 
"  I  should  be  little  surprised,"  said  Goethe,  "  if 
thousands  of  years  hence  I  should  meet  with 
this  Wieland  as  the  monad  of  a  world,  as  a  star 
of  the  first  magnitude."  The  monads  are  con- 
stantly transmigrating.  "  I  am  certain,"  he 
continued,  "  that  as  you  see  me  here  I  have  ex- 
isted a  thousand  times  already,  and  I  have  good 

27 


314  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

hope  of  coming  back  a  thousand  times  more." 
The  conception  of  the  soul's  retaining  its  per- 
sonality seems  to  be  here  excluded;  though 
Goethe  had  said  before,  that  "  how  much  or 
how  little  of  its  personality*  is  worthy  to  en- 
dure, is  a  question  and  a  point  to  be  left  to 
God."  Of  the  monads  some  are  powerful,  and 
form  the  "  monads  of  worlds,  souls  of  worlds  "  ; 
others  are  weak,  such  as  "  monads  of  ants,  souls 
of  ants."*  "  The  more  powerful  draw  into  their 
sphere  all  that  approaches  them,"  —  including 
weaker  monads,  —  "  and  convert  it  into  some- 
thing appertaining  to  themselves,  as  into  a  hu- 
man body,  a  plant,  an  animal,  or,  still  higher, 
into  a  star."  Inferior  monads  thus  absorbed  be- 
come monads  of  parts  of  the  body  formed,  sub- 
ject to  the  chief  monad.  Thus  there  are  mon- 
ads of  the  hands  and  fingers,  which  in  playing 
on  the  piano-forte  are  compelled  to  labor  for  the 
gratification  of  the  chief  monad,  not  their  own. 
The  forms  in  which  the  monads  clothe  them- 
selves are  often  but  imperfectly  developed,  and 
may  be  called  larv(£.     Such  are  the  forms  of  the 

*  Personlichkeit ;  —  not  "individual  existence,"  as  rendered 
by  Mrs.  Austin  ;  —  but  the  alteration  is  unimportant  as  regards  the 
expression  of  any  meaning  ;  for  it  is  as  much  without  meaning  to 
speak  of  a  partial  preservation  of  individual  existence,  as  to  speak 
of  personality  as  being  partially  retained. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  315 

lower  animals.  "  The  annihilation  of  a  monad 
is  not  to  be  thought  of ;  but  the  danger  of  its 
being  intercepted  by  a  more  powerful,  but  at  the 
same  time  a  meaner  monad,  is  a  serious  consid- 
eration,"—  an  apprehension  which,  as  Goethe 
says,  his  observation  of  nature,  on  which  his 
whole  speculation  is  professedly  founded,  could 
not  enable  him  entirely  to  put  aside.  While 
thus  speaking,  he  was  interrupted  by  the  re- 
peated barking  of  a  dog  in  the  street.  -He  flew 
to  the  window,  and  called  out :  —  "  Take  what 
shape  you  will,  larva,  you  shall  not  master 
me ! "  * 

This  discourse  of  Goethe  on  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  was  delivered  when  he  was  in  a 
solemn  and  philosophical  mood.  The  same 
cannot  be  said  of  another  passage  of  his  conver- 
sation preserved  by  Eckermann.  This  latter 
was  occasioned  by  some  mention  of  Tiedge's 
Urania,  a  religious  poem.  "  I  have  had  to  suf- 
fer," he  said,  "  not  a  little  from  Tiedge's  Ura- 
nia; for  there  was  a  time  when  nothing  else 
was  sung  or  declaimed.     Wherever  you  went, 

*  The  lot  to  which  the  weaker  monads  or  souls  are  exposed 
may  remind  one  of  Pope's  description  of  some  "  vile  straw  that 's 
blown  about  the  streets  "  ;  — 

"  now  loose,  now  fast, 
And  carried  off  in  some  dog's  tail  at  last." 


316  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

you  found  the  Urania  upon  every  table.  The 
Urania  and  immortality  were  the  topics  of  every 
conversation.  I  would  by  no  means  dispense 
with  the  happiness  of  believing  in  a  future  con- 
tinuance of  being ;  nay,  I  would  say  with  Lo- 
renzo de'  Medici,  that  all  those  are  dead  even 
for  this  life  who  hope  for  no  other ;  but  such 
incomprehensible  things  lie  too  far  off  to  be- 
come an  object  of  daily  consideration  and  of 

speculation  which  confounds  us I 

found  stupid  women,  who  were  proud  of  be- 
lieving in  immortality  with  Tiedge ;  and  I  was 
obliged  to  submit  to  be  examined  by  many  of 
them  on  this  point  in  a  very  conceited  manner. 
But  I  scandalized  them  by  saying  I  could  be 
well  content,  that  after  the  close  of  this  life  we 
should  be  blessed  with  another,  but  I  would  beg 
not  to  have  there  for  companions  any  who  had 
believed  in  it  here.  For  in  that  case,  what  vex- 
ation would  await  me !  The  pious  would  come 
round  me  and  say,  Were  we  not  in  the  right  1 
Did  we  not  predict  it  1  Has  it  not  happened "? 
And  so  there  too  I  should  be  bored  without  end. 
—  It  is  for  the  higher  classes,  and  especially 
for  women  of  quality,  who  have  nothing  to 
do,  to  busy  themselves  with  ideas  of  immortal- 
ity. But  an  able  man,  who  thinks  that  there 
is  something  to  be  done  here,  and  who,  there- 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  317 

fore,  has  every  day  to  strive,  to  fight,  and  to 
work,  leaves  the  future  world  to  itself,  and  is 
active  and  useful  in  the  present.  Ideas  of  im- 
mortality, moreover,  are  for  such  as  have  not 
attained  the  best  fortune  here ;  and  I  would 
wager  that  if  the  good  Tiedge  had  had  better 
luck,  he  would  have  had  better  thoughts."  * 

The  loose,  disjointed  talk  of  the  passages  I 
have  quoted,  the  irreligious  flippancy  of  the 
last,  the  ignorance  or  disregard  of  the  actual 
condition  of  mankind,  few  of  whom  "  attain  the 
best  fortune  here,"  and  the  insensibility  to  the 
character  and  wants  of  all  who  aim  at  some- 
thing better  than  leading  an  animal  and  world- 
ly life,  were  characteristic  of  Goethe,  and 
through  him  infected  that  literature  of  which 
he  was  for  a  long  time  the  central  orb.  It  was 
a  literature  suited  to  the  low  state  of  society 
by  which  it  was  produced  and  admired,  and  to 
the  wants  and  tastes  of  a  people  to  whom  any 
form  of  intellectual  refinement  in  their  own 
language  was  a  novelty.  It  was  a  literature 
from  which  the  influence  of  religion  was  ex- 
cluded. We  may  hardly  at  once  comprehend 
how  much  is  expressed  by  those  words.     But 

•  Gesprache  mit  Goethe  (2d  ed.,  Leipsic,  1837),  Vol.  I.  pp. 
120-122. 

27* 


318  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

with  the  conceptions  derived  from  religion,  as 
affecting  the  heart  or  the  imagination,  regard- 
ed either  as  true,  or  as  what  may  be  true,  are 
connected  all  that  gives  nobleness  and  moral 
beauty  to  the  character  of  man,  —  all  that  is  at 
once  earnest,  genuine,  and  disinterested  in  his 
affections  toward  his  fellow-men,  —  the  senti- 
ments which  have  their  origin  in  his  spiritual 
nature,  and  the  motives  which  cannot  be  re- 
solved into  natural  impulses,  or  modifications 
of  selfishness.  To  one  who  has  withdrawn  him- 
self from  the  influence  of  religion,  the  spiritual 
world  is  annihilated.  Infinity  and  eternity  be- 
come of  no  concern  to  him.  His  view  is  con- 
tracted to  what  lies  about  him  in  this  world. 
All  that  is  venerable  and  holy  disappears  ;  and 
the  substitute  offered  for  it  is  what  has  been 
called  "  Hero  Worship."  Nothing  true  to  our 
higher  nature  was  to  be  expected  from  the  lit- 
erature which  excluded  all  consideration  of  our 
higher  nature.     It  was  of  the  earth,  earthy. 

The  influence  of  Goethe  and  of  the  literature 
to  which  he  gave  its  tone  may  be  inferred  from 
the  constituents  of  his  character.  He  was  a 
thoroughly  selfish  man  ;  seeking  his  own  grat- 
ifications, and  caring  for  others  only  as  his  fol- 
lowers, admirers,  or  patrons,  as  those  who 
might  in  some  way  contribute  to  his  celebrity, 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  319 

rank,  or  means  of  self-indulgence.  He  had,  as 
appears  from  his  autobiography,  little  feeling 
even  for  such  as  had  been  most  foolishly  or  most 
improperly  connected  with  him,  except  so  far  as 
the  expression  of  their  sufferings  might  annoy 
him.  He  was  an  Epicurean,  not  such  as  we 
may  imagine  Atticus,  the  friend  of  Cicero,  or 
Epicurus  himself  in  his  little  garden  at  Athens, 
but  according  to  the  less  refined  habits  of  a 
small  German  court.  His  admirer,  Falk,  tells 
us  that  he  commonly  avoided  all  conversation 
respecting  "  super-sensible  "  topics,  "  perfectly," 
as  Falk  believed,  "  on  principle,  since,  conform- 
ably to  his  natural  inclinations,  he  preferred  to 
confine  himself  to  the  present  and  to  the  lovely 
appearances  which  art  and  nature  afford  to  the 
eyes  and  the  contemplation  in  spheres  w^hich 
are  accessible  to  us." 

Goethe's  view  was  confined  to  this  world, 
and  to  its  apparent  interests.  He  did  not  re- 
gard men  as  spiritual  beings.  With  such  a 
character  one  cannot  estimate  nor  understand 
what  is  morally  excellent  in  others,  nor  the  ca- 
pacity of  such  excellence.  He  cannot  be  wise 
in  his  knowledge  of  mankind,  nor  exercise  a 
beneficial  influence  on  his  readers.  He  sees 
only  a  small  part  of  human  nature,  and  that 
the  inferior  part  of  it.     He  can  neither  deline- 


320  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ate  it  truly  as  it  exists,  nor  contribute  to  its  ad- 
vancement. Thus  it  is  that  the  personages 
whom  Goethe  introduces  into  his  works  of  fic- 
tion have  no  power  over  the  sympathy  of  an 
honest  mind.  No  one  out  of  the  class  which 
he  has  influenced  can  feel  an  interest  in  the 
characters  or  the  fate  of  Werther,  or  Wilhelm 
Meister,  or  Faust.  His  personages  do  not  ap- 
pear as  real,  living  beings,  acting  and  speaking 
from  natural  motives,  but  as  theatrical  puppets 
moved  by  wires,  whose  voice  is  at  once  recog- 
nized as  that  of  the  prompter.  The  philosophy 
of  life  (as  it  has  been  called),  which  runs 
through  his  works,  is  baseless  and  vague ;  often 
put  forth  with  an  oracular  obscurity,  which 
serves  at  once  to  impose  on  a  credulous  wor- 
shipper, and  to  veil  from  others  what  might 
appear  to  them  as  commonplaces,  or  niaiseries. 
In  his  writings  there  is  no  expression  of  gen- 
uine religious  principle  or  sentiment.  They 
contain  much  which  is  irreverent  and  profane ; 
though  what  bears  this  character  is  marked 
more  by  a  pagan  deadness  of  feeling,  than  by  a 
spirit  of  hostility  to  religion.  They  recom- 
mend, directly  or  indirectly,  nothing  pure  or 
high  in  morals,  but  are  worldly,  licentious,  and 
indecent,  often  addressed  to  the  coarser  part  of 
man's  nature,  dealing  with  common  notions  of 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  321 

duty  as  belonging  to  a  "  sickly  religiousness  " 
(krcinkliche  Religiositat),  and  thus  preparing 
the  way,  at  least,  for  that  school  which  has  sig- 
nalized itself  by  teaching  the  doctrine  of  the 
"  Emancipation  of  the  Flesh,"  *  —  a  doctrine 
the  character  of  which  is  indicated  by  its  name. 


*  See  in  the  Conversations-Lexikon  der  Gegenwart  (1838)  the 
artijcle  entitled  Emancipation  des  Fleisches.  By  those  who  know 
the  character  of  the  writings  of  Henri  Heine,  the  spirit  of  this  arti- 
cle may  be  judged  of  from  a  remark  of  its  writer,  that  "  Heine  was 
the  first  who  decidedly  uttered  the  Gospel  of  the  Emancipation  of 
the  Flesh." 

In  a  book  ("  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "),  which,  to  the  honor  of  our 
community,  has  been  read  by  many  thousands  among  us,  it  is  said :  — 
*'  The  gift  to  appreciate  and  the  sense  to  feel  the  finer  shades  and 
relations  of  moral  things  often  seems  an  attribute  [seem  to  be  attri- 
butes] of  those  whose  whole  life  shows  a  careless  disregard  of 
them.  Hence,  Moore,  Byron,  Goethe,  often  speak  words  more 
wisely  descriptive  of  the  true  religious  sentiment,  than  another 
man  whose  whole  life  is  governed  by  it."  —  On  Moore  and  Byron 
I  have  no  remark  to  make.  In  minds  of  a  higher  order,  however 
bewildered  or  corrupted,  the  recognition  of  the  higher  nature  of 
man  is  likely  to  show  itself  in  some  form  or  other  ;  but  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  such  manifestations  in  the  writings  of  Goethe  ;  —  of 
any  thing  affecting  or  elevating  as  an  expression  of  religious  or 
moral  sentiment.  There  is  in  his  Faust  what  his  admirers  have 
called  a  "  pregnant,"  "  a  sublime  and  celebrated  passage,"  though 
at  the  same  time  describing  it  as  altogether  of  a  "  pantheistical 
tendency  and  character,"*  in  which  Goethe  is  supposed  by  them 
to  express  his  own  sentiments  concerning  the  belief  of  a  God.  It 
is  put  into  the  mouth  of  Faust,  as  addressed  by  him  to  the  poor, 
simple  girl  whom  he  had  debauched   through  the  instigation  of 

•  Falk's  Goethe,  p.  77.    Characteristics  of  Goethe,  I.  93,  267,  269. 


322  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

His  countrymen  have  complained  of  Goethe, 
that,  in  the  fearful  struggle  in  which  Europe 
was  engaged  during  his  lifetime,  he  had  no 
feeling  for  Germany,  no  patriotism;  that  his 
voice  was  not  heard.  But  the  complaint  should 
have  been  expressed  in  more  general  terms. 
His  indifference  to  the  condition  of  Germany 
was  only  a  branch  of  his   indifference  to  the 


Mephistopheles.  Its  doctrine  is  incongruous,  being,  first,  that  the 
name  of  God  may  be  given  to  the  incomprehensible  power  that  sur- 
rounds us,  and  then  that  it  may  be  given  to  the  feeling  which  the 
contemplation  of  this  power  produces  :  — 

*'  Fill  thy  heart  with  it,  large  as  it  is. 

And  when  thou  art  wholly  blest  in  the  feeling, ' 
Then  name  it  what  thou  wilt, 
Name  it  happiness,  heart,  love,  God. 
I  have  no  name  for  it. 
Feeling  is  all." 

Faust  had  just  before,  in  a  discourse  with  Mephistopheles,  ex- 
pressed his  feeling  toward  the  unhappy  woman  in  a  very  coarse 
manner :  — 

"  Nenne  nicht  das  schone  Weib  ! 
Bring'  die  Begier  zu  ihrem  siissen  Leib 
Nicht  wieder  vor  die  halb  verriickten  Sinnen  !  " 

In  the  line,  "Name  it  happiness,  heart,  love,  God,"  instead  of 
"  love,"  another  word  is  required  to  preserve  consistency  of  mean- 
ing, —  a  word  for  which  love  is  sometimes  used  as  synonymous 
by  writers  of  this  class. 

In  speaking  of  the  opposite  spirit  with  which  different  kinds  of 
literature  may  be  imbued,  the  book  I  have  mentioned  will  furnish 
an  example.    One  capable  of  estimating  its  merit  will  dwell  little 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  323 

condition  of  the  world,  so  long  as  it  did  not  af- 
fect him.  During  the  sack  of  Weimar,  the 
French  commander  had  a  guard  placed  round 
his  house.* 

Upon  some  occasion,  when  Falk  was  dis- 
coursing of  Goethe,  as  "  floating  with  sublime 
indifference  above  the  sport  of  the  world,"  Her- 
der interrupted  him  with  a  speech,  which  he 
has  recorded,  apparently  without  comprehend- 
on  its  imperfections  and  oversights,  though  he  may  regret  that 
toward  the  conclusion  it  is  marred  by  incidents  and  characters  such 
as  belong  to  an  ordinary  novel,  and  not  to  the  real  picture  of  ac- 
tual life  which  is  presented  in  far  the  greater  part  of  the  narrative. 
It  is  a  work  of  uncommon  power :  but  its  power,  though  we  may 
admire  the  genius  shown  in  it,  rests  on  the  solid  foundation  of 
moral  truth.  The  mind  of  the  writer  is  guided  by  that  strong 
sense  of  right  and  wrong  which  invigorates  the  intellect  scarcely 
less  than  the  affections.  Her  book  is  true  to  human  nature  in  the 
manifold  phases  of  it  which  she  brings  before  us,  and  true  in  its 
presentation  of  human  duties  in  their  relation  to  the  whole  of  man's 
existence,  —  true,  to  use  her  own  words,  to  "  a  life  which,  once 
believed  in,  stands  as  a  solemn,  significant  figure  before  the  other- 
wise unmeaning  ciphers  of  time."  It  belongs  to  a  very  different 
class  of  literature  from  any  thing  produced  in  the  school  of  Goethe, 
—  to  one  far  nobler  and  more  perceptive. 

*  The  same  year  (1806),  induced  by  his  "respect  for  the  mor- 
al law  of  marriage,"  as  one  of  his  biographers  says,  he  married  in 
his  fifty-seventh  year  a  woman  who  had  long  been  his  mistress ; 
and,  during  the  interval  between  the  sack  of  Weimar  and  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Bonaparte  from  Germany,  he  gave  his  time  to  the  study 
of  natural  science,  especially  to  his  work  on  optics,  which  was  to 
overturn  the  theory  of  Newton,  and  to  the  composition  of  the  most 
licentious  of  his  novels,  his  "  Elective  Affinities." 


324  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ing  its  truth  or  its  terrible  severity :  — "  This 
is  all  very  well.  But  whether  a  man  should 
here  mount  to  that  region  where  pictured  and 
real  sufferings  become  the  same  to  him,  where 
he  ceases  to  be  a  man,  though  not  to  be  an 
artist,  where  the  light  only  shines,  but  neither 
warms  nor  quickens,  and  whether  these  maxims, 
if  received,  would  not  produce  a  general  depra- 
vation of  character,  —  this  is  another  question." 
He  compares  such  men  to  Nero,  who  played  on 
the  lyre  after  setting  fire  to  Rome,  regarding  it 
as  a  splendid  picture,  and  pleased  himself  with 
tasteful  designs  for  rebuilding  it.  "  What  did 
it  concern  Nero's  architect  that  the  tears  of 
women  and  children  were  flowing  in  the  burn- 
ing city?     That  is  an  old  story We 

are  artists,  gods,  Neros."  * 

The  philosophy  of  Germany  gave  still  an- 
other character  to  the  popular  literature  of 
Germany.  It  transferred  to  it  its  obscurity. 
In  reading  many  works,  equally  in  one  depart- 
ment as  the  other,  a  mist  seems  to  gather  over 
our  eyes.  We  discern  strange  appearances,  but 
not  with  a  distinct  outline.  Of  this  Goethe  is 
again  a  prominent  example.  It  was  his  pleas- 
ure to  be  regarded  as  a  mysterious  writer,  full 

*  Falk's  Goethe,  pp.  142  -  144. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  325 

of  hidden  meanings.  He  addressed  the  "  pre- 
sentiment" rather  than  the  understanding  of 
his  readers.  Of  Wilhelm  Meister  it  is  said  by 
an  admirer :  —  "  What  Goethe  intended  in  it 
remains  a  mystery Nevertheless  Meis- 
ter must  ever  be  considered  one  of  Goethe's 
most  admirable  works,  for  in  that  and  in  Faust 
are  combined  all  the  universality  of  his  ge- 
nius." *  Of  Faust  it  is  said :  —  "  The  mysteri- 
ous depth  of  this  great  poem,  in  which  the 
world  is  reflected,  gave  occasion  to  many  expla- 
nations differing  from  one  another,  and  to  the 
most  opposite  views ;  and  both  mysticism  and 
the  contrary  doctrine  of  Hegel  were  believed  to 
be  reproduced  in  it."  f  "  Faust,"  said  Goethe 
himself,  "  is  altogether  something  incommensu- 
rable, and  all  attempts  to  bring  it  nearer  to  the 

understanding  are  vain But  this  very 

obscurity  excites  men,  and  they  labor  upon  it, 
as  upon  all  insolvable  problems."  J  "  We  must 
not,"  says  one  of  his  reviewers,  "  look  for  Goe- 
the's life  in  his  autobiography.  His  entire  life 
is  in  his  works.  They  are  so  many  different 
reflexes  of  difierent  states  of  his  own  outer  and 
inner  being.    .....    He  might  have  revealed 

*  Characteristics  of  Goethe,  III.  233,  234. 
f  Conversations- Lexikon  (1834),  Art.  Gothe. 
X  Eckermann,  II.  170. 


S26  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

himself  more  distinctly ;  but  mystery  was  with 
him  the  object  of  a  sort  of  reverence,  or  the  re- 
sult of  a  system."  *  His  friend,  Von  Miiller,  in 
a  eulogy  delivered  upon  him  after  his  death, 
says  :  —  "  From  his  love  of  secrecy  [in  common 
affairs]  proceeded  his  not  less  ruling  inclination 
to  the  enigmatical,  which  not  unfrequently  is  an 
obstacle  to  the  enjoyment  of  his  writings.  This 
inclination  formed  itself  in  him  into  deliberate 
maxims.  I  have  heard  him  often  maintain,  that 
a  work  of  art,  especially  a  poem,  which  leaves 
nothing  to  divine,  is  not  a  true  work,  is  nothing 
thoroughly  worthy  ;  that  its  highest  purpose 
ever  is  to  rouse  to  reflection ;  and  that  it  can 
become  truly  a  favorite  with  the  spectator  or 
reader  only  when  it  forces  him  to  interpret  it 
according  to  his  own  mode  of  thinking,  and,  as 
it  were,  to  complete  and  make  it  over  again."  "I* 
Hence  Goethe  has  been  called  "  the  most 
suggestive  of  writers."  A  suggestive  writer  is 
one  who  presents  some  important  truth  in  a 
clear  light,  which  is  reflected  from  other  truths 
connected  with  it,  and  brings  them  into  view; 
not  one  who  perplexes  his  readers  by  involving 
them  in  attempts  to  solve  his  meaning,  or  to  de- 

*  Characteristics  of  Goethe,  III.  40. 

f  Goethe  in  seiner  ethischen  Eigenthiimliehkeit  (1832),  p.  19. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  32T 

termine  whether  he  has  any.  Suggestions  give 
light,  not  darkness.  A  suggestive  writer  con- 
ducts us  to  a  point  of  view  from  which  we  can 
see  what  was  before  hidden  from  us,  without  its 
being  expressly  pointed  out  by  him.  A  writer 
who  has  a  strong  tendency  to  the  enigmatical 
carries  us  upon  a  barren  heath  where  dijfferent 
footpaths  present  themselves,  and  suggests  that 
one  or  other  may  lead  us  right.  The  affectation 
of  profoundness  is  a  common  disguise  of  pov- 
erty or  want  of  thought. 

Among  the  evils  of  which  the  German  school 
of  speculation  has  been  at  once  the  sign  and  the 
cause,  unintelligible  writing,  if  not  one  of  the 
greatest,  has  been  one  of  the  most  obvious. 
We  find  it  in  every  form,  —  in  professed  works 
of  disquisition,  and  in  professed  works  of  senti- 
ment, pervading  masses  of  metaphysics,  and 
spreading  an  uncertain  light  over  immoral  nov- 
els. This  unmeaning  use  of  language  indi-.- 
cates  and  corresponds  to  great  confusion  of 
thought.  It  is  one  result  of  the  want  of  settled 
principles,  and  of  the  anarchical  and  ever-vary- 
ing state  of  opinion,  which  are  characteristics 
of  our  times.  It  affords  no  ready  means  of 
conviction ;  for  it  is  hard  to  convince  of  error 
those  who  do  not  understand  themselves,  who 
are  without  any  definite  purpose  but  a  negative 


328  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

or  destructive  one,  who  have  no  distinct  and 
fixed  meaning,  but  whose  pretended  meaning 
disappears  in  proportion  as  you  give  an  intelli- 
gible sense  to  the  words  which  they  use.  Per- 
spicuity is  the  great  enemy  of  error.  Com- 
monly, a  false  opinion,  when  stated  in  plain 
words,  either  reveals  its  character,  or  can  easily 
be  shown  to  be  what  it  is.  When  one  is  bewil- 
dered by  obscurity  of  style,  there  is  a  strong 
presumption  against  the  value  of  any  meaning 
that  may  be  put  upon  the  words.  He  who 
writes  what  is  worth  reading  must  think  clear- 
ly ;  and  it  is  a  rare  case  that  he  who  thinks 
clearly  wants  the  ability  to  express  himself  in- 
telligibly. 

From  a  literature  lying  out  of  the  light  of  re- 
ligion, all  the  sources  of  the  highest  beauty  and 
interest  were  excluded ;  all  those  belonging  to 
our  spiritual  and  more  excellent  nature.  It 
was  necessarily  conversant  with  meaner  objects, 
with  the  palpable  and  familiar  things  of  vulgar 
life,  with  the  ordinary  passions  of  men,  to  which 
there  is  often  an  attempt  to  give  interest  by  a 
strong  seasoning  of  licentiousness,  or  by  exag- 
geration and  extravagance,  or  by  exhibiting 
them  in  combinations  which  have  no  counter- 
part in  nature.  Hence  followed  a  general  de- 
pravation of  taste,  a  confinement  of  its  sphere, 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  329 

a  belittling  of  its  character.  The  terms  of 
praise,  terms  which  have  passed  into  our  own 
language,  became  the  words  "  sesthetic "  and 
"  artistic,"  neither  of  them  expressive  of  moral 
feeling,  the  first  being  used  to  signify  very  lit- 
tle or  nothing  more  than  "  agreeable  as  a  work 
of  art,"  and  the  other  denoting  only  the  skill  of 
the  artist.  A  person  very  intimately  connected 
with  Goethe  once  remarked,  that  "  he  was  not 
an  artist ;  for  he  was  conscious  of  moral  prefer- 
ences." The  consequent  deficiencies  and  ofi'en- 
ces  in  German  literature  have  been  such,  that, 
though  there  are  many  translations  from  it  into 
our  own  language,  there  are  but  few  works 
which  have  secured  the  permanent  regard  of 
English  readers.* 

^  To  attempt  to  illustrate  these  remarks  by  exemplifications 
would  lead  us  much  too  far ;  but  I  am  induced  to  give  one  illustra- 
tion, which  is  to  be  found  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  third  edition  of 
Strauss's  noted  work  (it  is  omitted  in  the  fourth  edition),  —  espe- 
cially as  the  passage  has  a  bearing  on  various  topics  which  have 
been  adverted  to.  Strauss,  after  laboring  to  show  that  there  is 
very  little  to  be  credited  in  the  history  of  our  Lord,  as  all  that  is 
miraculous  is  to  be  unhesitatingly  rejected,  and  to  reduce  him  to 
little  more  than  a  mythical  or  allegorical  personage,  takes  in  this 
concluding  chapter  a  new  position,  as  being  in  some  sort  a  Chris- 
tian, and  asserts  that  Christ,  as  the  founder  of  Christianity,  ranks 
above  the  other  founders  of  different  religions.  Such  is  the  fact, 
he  says,  so  far  as  regards  the  past;  but  whether  this  superiority 
will  continue  is  another  question.  In  the  discussion  of  it,  which  it 
28* 


330  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

Thus  we  have  seen  something  of  the  charac- 
ter and  effects  of  German  theology,  connected 
as  it  was  with  German  speculation  on  all  relat- 
ed subjects.  I  use  the  epithet  not  invidiously, 
but  because  all  its  most  distinguishing  peculiar- 
ities, in  matter  and  form,  were  fully  developed 
in  Germany,  were  not  received  there  from 
abroad,  but  have  made  their  way  thence  else- 
where. This  they  continue  to  do,  even  while 
they  are  dying  out  on  their  native  soil,  and 
leaving  only  their  calamitous  effects  behind.  I 
have  spoken  particularly  of  De  Wette,  not  from 
any  intellectual  superiority  on  his  part,  but  be- 
cause he  is  a  favorable  specimen  of  a  large  class 
of  German  theologians,  and  one  of  those  best 
known  out  of  Germany.  But,  excepting  out 
of  Germany,  there  are  now,  I  believe,  very  few 

is  not  worth  while  to  attempt  to  make  intelligible,  Strauss  cites 
examples  of  great  men,  —  such  as  Caesar  and  Bonaparte,  —  the 
earlier  of  whom  in  point  of  time  have  been  excelled  by  the  later, 
hot  through  any  superiority  of  individual  qualities,  but  because 
their  successors  lived  in  a  more  advanced  state  of  the  world.  Thus 
Shakspeare  stands  higher  than  Homer  or  Sophocles  "  because  he 
wrought  upon  a  more  developed  consciousness  of  humanity,  and  had 
to  solve  deeper,  or,  at  least,  more  complicated  problems ;  —  as 
again,  in  this  same  respect,  Goethe  is  above  Shakspeare."  — Shak- 
speare and  Goethe  I  The  comparison  is  between  Prospero,  with 
his  wand  of  power,  controlling  the  spirits  of  the  elements,  and 
Mephistopheles  drawing  infernal  wine  by  boring  holes  in  a  wooden 
table  with  a  gimlet. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  331 

who  would  regard  his  name  as  any  authority, 
or  consult  his  works  for  guidance  in  regard  to 
the  character  of  religion. 

I  SHALL  now  illustrate  this  theology  still  fur- 
ther from  the  most  celebrated  and  popular 
work  of  one  who  was  in  his  day,  perhaps,  the 
most  distinguished  of  its  leaders,  though  in  the 
interval  since  his  death,  in  1834,  his  celeb- 
rity and  influence  among  his  countrymen  have 
declined   as   rapidly  as  De  Wette's.     I   mean 

SCHLEIERMACHER. 

It  is  now  fifty-three  years  since  Schleier- 
macher  first  published  his  "  Discourses  on  Re- 
ligion." *     In  a  tone  of  pretension  very  foreign 

*  '•  Ueber  die  Religion."  -^  This  work  was  originally  published 
in  1799,  when  the  author  was  thirty  years  old.  In  1806,  a  second 
edition  appeared,  in  the  Dedication  of  which  the  author  professes 
to  have  revised  it  throughout,  for  the  purpose,  among  others,  of 
removing  all  occasion  for  the  gross  misunderstandings  to  which  it 
had  been  exposed,  causing  him  to  be  represented  as  a  fanatic  by 
infidels,  and  an  unbeliever  by  bigots.  In  1821,  a  third  edition  was 
published,  again  revised,  with  many  changes  of  expression,  and  ac- 
companied with  copious  notes,  to  explain  more  fully  the  writer's 
opinions.  And  in  1831,  three  years  before  his  death,  a  fourth  edi- 
tion was  issued,  being  that  which  I  use.  In  the  Preface  to  the 
third  edition  (which  is  retained,  without  any  additional  notice,  in 
the  fourth),  he  again  refers  to  "  the  numerous  and  in  part  very 
wonderful  misconceptions  "  of  his  meaning,  and  to  the  consequent 


332  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

from  the  common  character  of  intelligent  men, 
he  professes  to  have  written  it,  not  "  through 
any  determination  of  his  judgment,"  but  through 
"  a  divine  call,"  a  "  heavenly  impulse."  It  is  a 
system  of  pantheism,  wrought  up  in  a  highly 
declamatory  style,  in  which  the  language  often 
soars  beyond  meaning,  and  in  which  there  is 
scarcely  an  attempt  at  what  may  be  called  rea- 
soning. Religion,  according  to  him,  is  the 
sense  of  the  union  of  the  individual  with  the 
universe,  with  Nature,  or,  in  the  language  of 
the  sect,  with  the  One  and  AIL*  It  is  a  feel- 
ing; it  has  nothing  to  do  with  belief  or  ac- 
tion ;  j*  it  is  unconnected  with  morality ;  their 
provinces  are  different ;  J  it  is  independent  of 
the  idea  of  a  personal  God.  §  The  idea  of  a 
personal  God  is  pure  mythology.  ||  And  the 
belief  and  desire  of  personal  immortality  are 
"  wholly  irreligious,"  as  being  opposed  to  that 

charges  of  atheism  and  mysticism  which  had  been  brought  against 
him  "  almost  in  the  same  breath."  One  would  think  that  it  must 
be  felt  as  a  great  misfortune  by  a  writer  earnest  to  propagate  what 
he  thinks  the  truth  concerning  religion  to  be  unable  to  express 
himself  intelligibly,  and,  in  consequence,  to  be  grossly  misappre- 
hended, and  to  be  charged  with  unbelief  and  fanaticism,  with  athe- 
ism and  mysticism. 

*  See  particularly  pp.  48,  seqq. 

t  Pp.  53,54.  t  Pp.  21,  seqq. 

§  Pp.  110,  seqq.  H  P.  69. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  333 

which  is  the  aim  of  religion,  "  the  annihilation 
of  one's  own  personality,"  "  the  living  in  the 
One  and  All,"  "  the  becoming,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, one  with  the  universe."  *  The  writer 
whom  I  have  quoted  partook  of  the  sacrament 
on  his  death-bed,  as  a  Christian.  We  may 
have  a  striking  apprehension  of  the  relation  in 
which  his  system  stands  to  Christianity,  if  we 
imagine  the  words  of  Jesus  struck  out  from  the 
Gospels,  and  his  teachings  substituted  in  their 
stead. 

Schleiermacher  introduces  into  his  work  a 
glowing  eulogy  on  Spinoza.  It  is  an  elaborate 
specimen  of  his  eloquence.  "  Reverently,"  he 
apostrophizes,  "  offer  with  me  a  lock  of  hair  to 
the  manes  of  the  holy,  the  proscribed  Spinoza. 
Him  the  high  World-spirit  pervaded ;  the  infi- 
nite was  his  beginning  and  end,  the  universe 
his  only  and  eternal  love;  in  holy  innocence 
and  deep  humility  he  beheld  himself  mirrored 
in  the  eternal  world,  and  saw  how  he  too  was 
its  loveliest  mirror.  Full  of  religion  was  he, 
and  full  of  a  holy  spirit,  and  hence  he  stands 
alone  and  unapproached,  master  in  his  art,  but 
raised  above  the  profane  fraternity,  without  ap- 
prentices and  without  burghership."  f 

*  Pp.  118,  seqq.  f  Ueber  die  Religion,  pp.  47,  48. 


334  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

Cousin,  who  may  be  reckoned  as  belonging 
to  the  German  school  of  metaphysicians  and 
theologists,  likewise  pronounces  a  panegyric  on 
Spinoza  ;  but  it  looks  pale  by  the  side  of  Schlei- 
ermacher's.  I  will  quote  a  few  sentences :  — 
<'  The  book  of  Spinoza,  all  bristling  as  it  is  after 
the  fashion  of  his  time  with  geometrical  formu- 
lae, —  so  dry  and  so  repulsive  in  its  style,  —  is  at 
the  bottom  a  mystic  hymn,  a  soaring  and  long- 
ing of  the  spirit  directed  toward  Him  who  alone 

is  authorized  to  say,  I  am  that  I  am 

Spinoza  is  an  Indian  yogi,  a  Persian  sufi,  an 
enthusiastic  monk  ;  and  the  author  whom  this 
pretended  atheist  most  resembles  is  the  un- 
known author  of  the  '  Imitation  of  Jesus 
Christ'  "  *  Elsewhere,  however,  he  says  that, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Spinoza,  "  God  can 
be  only  a  substance,  and  not  a  cause, — the 
perfect  being,  infinite,  necessary,  the  immuta- 
ble substance  of  the  universe,  and  not  its  pro- 
ducing and  creating  cause."  f  This  language  is 
very  inaccurate ;  for  Spinoza  repeats  often,  that 
God  is  the  only  cause  of  all  things,  teaching  as 
a  fundamental  doctrine  that  the  "  substance  of 


*  Fragments  Philosophiques.     CEuvres  (Bruxelles,  1841),  Tom. 

n.  p.  178. 

f  Cours  de  I'Histoire  de  la  Philosophic,  11"""  Le9on.     CEuvres, 
Tom.  I.  p.  218. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  335 

the  universe,"  which  alone  has  an  independent 
existence,  produces  all  finite  beings  as  their  im- 
manent cause,  —  that  is,  as  I  shall  hereafter 
explain,  produces  them  from  itself.  But  he 
also  teaches,  as  we  shall  likewise  see,  that  this 
substance,  or  God,  as  it  is  called  in  his  vocab- 
ulary, produces  them  without  purpose,  hav- 
ing no  providence  over  them.  The  absurdity 
of  supposing  a  mystic,  devotional  hymn,  the 
enthusiastic  breathing  forth  of  the  spirit,  to  be 
addressed  to  such  a  being  either  as  Spinoza 
conceived  of,  or  as  Cousin  reports  him  to  have 
conceived  of,  is,  perhaps,  not  aggravated  by  rep- 
resenting this  hymn  as  composed  in  geometrical 
formulce,  whatever  may  be  the  meaning  of  those 
words.  But  this  mistake  is  not  the  only  fun- 
damental error  respecting  the  system  of  Spino- 
za that  appears  in  the  passage  from  which  I 
have  last  quoted.  Cousin  says,  that  "  in  Spino- 
za's philosophy  man  and  nature  are  only  pure 
phenomena,  simple  attributes  of  the  only  and 
absolute  substance,"  and  repeatedly  uses  the 
word  "  attribute  "  in  a  similar  manner.  But  by 
an  "  attribute "  Spinoza  explains  himself  as 
meaning  that  which  constitutes  the  essence  of 
a  substance.  According  to  him,  the  only  attri- 
butes of  the  one  substance  of  the  universe,  his 
God,  which  are  comprehensible  by  man,  are  in- 


336  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

finite  extension  and  infinite  thought.  These 
are  not  finite  things ;  man  and  nature  are  not 
these  attributes,  as  Cousin  asserts.  But  all 
finite  things  are,  according  to  Spinoza,  modes 
of  these  attributes.  Between  these  modes 
which  constitute  finite  things,  and  the  attri- 
butes which  constitute  the  infinite  substance, 
Spinoza  of  course  makes  a  wide  distinction. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  doctrine  is  no  more  an 
object  of  the  understanding  in  its  proper  form, 
as  it  appears  in  Spinoza,  than  in  that  in  which  it 
is  presented  by  Cousin.  To  illustrate  the  dif- 
ference between  them  by  a  particular  example, — 
according  to  Cousin,  the  sun,  a  finite  thing,  is, 
in  Spinoza's  system,  an  attribute  of  God ;  ac- 
cording to  Spinoza  himself,  it  is  a  mode  of  infi- 
nite extension,  which  is  one  attribute  of  the 
universal  substance ;  for  the  other  attribute,  in- 
finite thought,  is  out  of  the  question. 

Before  the  time  when  German  speculation 
began  to  flourish,  Spinoza  had  been  almost  for- 
gotten. His  works  had  never  been  collected, 
and  were  separately  difficult  to  be  procured. 
But  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century  his 
fame  began  to  revive  in  Germany,  it  spread  rap- 
idly, and  his  influence  on  German  metaphysics 
and  German,  infidel  theology  soon  became  very 
great,  and  generally  recognized.     Within  four 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  337 

years  after  Schleiermaclier's  eulogy,  Paulus, 
another  German  theologian  of  about  equal 
note,  published  the  first  edition  of  his  collected 
works  (in  1802-3).  In  the  preface  to  the  sec- 
ond volume  he  says,  that  "  the  superstitious 
and  ridiculous  horror  of  the  atheism,  so  called, 
of  Spinoza,  was  shaken  off  by  his  countrymen 
earlier  than  by  the  intelligent  elsewhere."  To 
deny  the  atheism  of  Spinoza  is  merely  to  deny 
that  the  word  is  to  be  used  in  its  common  and 
established  sense,  as  expressive  of  disbelief  in 
an  intelligent  and  designing  Creator. 

In  1830  a  writer  named  Gfrorer  (I  speak 
of  him  thus,  because,  though  he  has  written 
much,  I  suppose  his  name  is  familiar  to  very 
few  of  my  readers)  put  forth  another  edition  of 
Spinoza's  collected  works;  and  in  1843  anoth- 
er cheap  edition,  edited  by  Bruder,  was  stereo- 
typed at  the  press  of  Tauchnitz.  Gfrorer,  in 
speaking  of  Spinoza,  emulates  the  lofty  tone 
of  Schleiermacher.  He  says,  among  other 
things :  —  "  Should  you  consider  the  force  of 
his  genius,  you  may  scarce  regard  him  as  a 
man,  but  as  some  new  nature,  which  by  itself 
alone  effected  all  which  might  be  effected  by 
the  joint  efforts  of  the  forces  of  a  thousand  mor- 
tals. You  might  equal  him  to  an  age ;  for  dur- 
ing a  period,  now  of  almost  two  centuries,  what 

29 


338  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

advance  has  been  made  in  philosophy,  in  which 
he  did  not  lead  the  way  and  break  the  roadl 
or  what  improvement  has  there  been  in  theol- 
ogy, which  was  not  derived  from  his  store- 
houses ]  "  *  "  In  treating  sacred  history  who 
was  more  acute,  and  more  free  from  all  the 
prejudices  which  his  own  age  not  only  defend- 
ed, but  madly  cherished;  so  that  to  this  day 
whatever  sound  doctrine  has  been  promulgated 
on  this  subject  appears  to  have  had  its  source 
in  the  writings  of  Spinoza  1  "  f  "  Spinoza 
maintained  that  the  universe,  or  the  eternity 
of  the  laws  which  operate  in  the  world,  is 
God ;  and  this  doctrine  very  many  affirm  to  be 
most  gloomy  and  horrible,  as  it  seems  to  be  in- 
consistent with  Divine  Providence  and  the  spe- 
cial care  and  love  of  God  for  pious  men.  But 
let  them  consider  how  calm  and  how  cheerful 

Spinoza  always  lived And  in  truth 

nothing  can  be  called  gloomy  or  cheerful  ex- 
cept under  some  particular  relation,  and  it  may 
well  be,  that  what  seems  dreadful  to  one  may 
be  most  agreeable  to  another  who  judges  the 
thing  differently."  $ 

"What  is  said  in  such  passages  concerning  the 
•atheistic,  or,  if  any  one  prefer  the  word,  panthe- 

*  Preefat.  p.  vi.  f  Ibid.  p.  viii.  J  Ibid.  pp.  ix.,  x. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  339 

istic,  doctrine  of  Spinoza  may  be  offensive  to 
our  feelings,  but  in  the  present  state  of  opinion 
it  is  well  they  should  be  written.  It  is  desir- 
able that  the  nature  of  the  discussion  with  the 
later  speculatists  of  Germany  and  tho^e  of  the 
same  school  elsewhere  should  be  distinctly  and 
generally  understood ;  that  it  should  be  made  as 
evident  as  it  has  been  made,  that  the  question 
at  issue  is,  whether  there  is  or  is  not  any 
ground  for  the  existence  of  religion  among 
men. 

Bruder  does  not  profess  himself  to  be  so  en- 
thusiastic an  admirer  of  Spinoza  as  some  of 
those  whom  I  have  quoted.  He  mentions  the 
declaration  of  Lessing,  that  "  there  is  no  other 
philosophy  but  the  philosophy  of  Spinoza " ; 
he  speaks  of  his  influence  on  the  principal  Ger- 
man metaphysicians  subsequent  to  Kant ;  he 
quotes  at  length  Schleiermacher's  eulogy  upon 
him,  and  then  remarks,  that  "  it  is  not  strange 
that  at  the  present  day,  when  there  is  the  most 
eager  discussion  of  philosophical  subjects,  and 
of  the  weightiest  questions  in  politics  and  lit- 
erature, the  philosophy  of  Spinoza  should  be 
brought  forward  and  cultivated  with  new  ardor 
as  a  primary  source,  and  even  that  particular 
courses  of  lectures  on  his  doctrine  should  be  de- 
livered in  some  of  the  universities  of  our  coun- 


340  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

try."  "  The  credit  of  Spinoza,"  he  says,  "  be- 
gan to  prevail  when,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  Schelling  and  Hegel  at  last 
inclined  to  many  of  his  opinions,  each  according 
to  his  own  system,  so  that  he  may  be  account- 
ed the  source  of  the  philosophy  of  our  age."  * 

Such  being  the  influence  of  Spinoza  on  mod- 
ern German  metaphysics  and  theology,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  a  just  conception  of  them  to  have 
some  acquaintance  with  his  leading  doctrines, 
and  his  manner  of  thinking  and  writing. 

According  to  Spinoza  there  is  but  one  sub- 
stance existing. j*     All  the  phenomena  of  what 

*  Praefat.  pp.  iii.,  iv.,  xix. 

f  To  this  substance  Spinoza  repeatedly  ascribes  "  infinite  attri- 
butes." In  the  sixth  of  the  Definitions  with  which  he  commences 
his  Ethics,  he  says  :  —  "By  God  I  understand  an  absolutely  infi- 
nite being,  that  is,  a  substance  consisting  of  infinite  attributes." 
In  the  First  Part  of  this  work  he  speaks  of  all  the  attributes  of 
God,  and  uses  other  expressions  implying  more  than  a  duality  of 
attributes.  But  one  would  not  in  consequence  be  justified  in  stat- 
ing that  the  ascription  of  infinite  attributes  to  the  one  substance  of 
the  universe  made  a  part  of  Spinoza's  system.  His  language  ap- 
pears to  be  used  either  through  confusion  of  mind,  or  in  accommo- 
dation to  the  common  belief  concerning  the  attributes  of  God, 
whose  name  he  has  transferred  to  the  infinite  substance.  What- 
ever he  may  have  asserted  in  general  terms,  Spinoza  expressly 
states  that  but  two  attributes  of  this  substance  can  be  known  by 
man,  —  one,  infinite  extension  (extension  being  considered  by  him 
as  the  essence  of  matter),  and  the  other,  infinite  thought  (thought 
being  considered  by  him  as  the  essence  of  all  thinking  beings)^ 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  341 

we  call  the  created  universe  —  that  is,  all  finite 
beings,  with  their  properties,  acts,  and  affec- 
tions ;  with  their  moral  qualities,  good  or  bad  ; 
with  their  joys  and  sufferings,  —  are  but  modes 
or  modifications  of  the  attributes  of  this  sole 
substance,  or,  in  other  words,  of  this  substance 
itself.  This  substance  has  existed  without  be- 
ginning. It  could  be  produced  by  no  other; 
for  one  substance  cannot  produce  another ;  — 
creation  is  impossible.*  It  is  "  the  immanent 
cause  of  all  things,  not  a  transitive  cause."  f 
These  terms  are  technical,  and  require  explana- 
tion. An  immanent  cause  is  that  which  produ- 
ces effects  only  in  or  upon  itself.  A  transitive 
cause  is  that  which  passes  out  of  itself,  as  it 
were,  to  produce,  or  to  act  on,  something  else,  j 

These  two  attributes  only  are  specified  in  his  Ethics  ;  the  consid- 
eration of  these  alone,  with  their  "  modes,"  enters  into  his  sys- 
tem ;  on  these  two  attributes  that  system  wholly  rests,  and  that 
these  alone  can  be  known  he  affirms  in  his  sixty-sixth  Letter, 
where,  after  discussing  the  subject,  he  says:  —  "And  so  I  con- 
clude that  the  human  mind  can  attain  a  knowledge  of  no  attribute 
of  God  except  these."  —  0pp.  I.  673,  674,  ed.  Paulus. 

*  These  principles  are  stated  in  the  first  fifteen  Propositions  of 
the  First  Part  of  his  Ethics,  in  which  Part  he  treats  of  God. 

t  Ethices  P.  I.  Prop.  18.     0pp.  II.  54. 

J  "  Causa  immanens  dicitur,  quae  producit  efiectum  in  seipsa. 

Causa  transiens  dicitur,  quae  producit  effectum  extra  se." 

Burgersdicii  Institut.  Metaphys.  The  words  were  in  common  use 
in  these  senses  by  the  scholastic  writers  before  and  after  the  time 
of  Spinoza. 

29* 


342  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

The  sole  substance  of  the  universe  is  the  God 
of  Spinoza. 

To  this  substance,  considered  in  itself,  dis- 
tinct from  the  effects  produced  by  it  in  itself, 
and  as  the  cause  of  those  effects,  he  gives  the 
name  also  of  Natura  naturans,  which  may  be 
explained  by  the  equivalent  term,  causal  Na- 
ture ;  while  to  the  modifications  produced  by  it 
in  itself,  that  is,  to  the  phenomena  of  the  uni- 
verse, he  gives  the  name  of  Natura  naturata,  for 
which  we  may  substitute  phenomenal  Nature.'* 

To  this  substance  considered  in  itself,  to  his 
Natura  naturans,  that  is,  to  his  God,  regarded 

*  As  this  is  an  important  point  in  his  theory,  I  quote  the  pas- 
sage at  length  in  which  he  explains  his  views  :  — 

"  Antequam  ulterius  pergam,  hie,  quid  nobis  per  Naturam  natu- 
rantem  et  quid  per  Naturam  naturatam  intelligendum  sit,  explicare 
volo,  vel  potius  monere.  Nam  ex  antecedentibus  jam  constare 
existimo,  nempe,  quod  per  Naturam  naturantem  nobis  intelligen- 
dum est  id,  quod  in  se  est  et  per  se  concipitur,  sive  talia  substan- 
tias attributa,  quae  aeternara  et  infinitam  essentiam  exprimunt,  hoc 
est,  Deus,  quatenus,  ut  causa  libera,  consideratur.  Per  Natura- 
tam autem  inteliigo  id  omne,  quod  ex  necessitate  Dei  naturae,  sive 
uniuscujusque  Dei  attributorum  sequitur,  hoc  est,  omnes  Dei  attri- 
butorum  modos,  quatenus  considerantur,  ut  res,  quae  in  Deo  sunt  et 
quae  sine  Deo  nee  esse,  nee  concipi  possunt."  —  Ethices  P.  I. 
Prop.  29,  Schol.,  pp.  61,  62. 

By  causa  libera  Spinoza  means  nothing  more  than  a  cause  un- 
constrained by  any  other ;  as  he  explains  in  the  demonstration  of 
the  seventeenth  Proposition  of  the  First  Part,  and  in  the  corollaries 
to  it,  pp.  51,  52. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  343 

as  the  cause  of  all  things,  he  expressly  denies 
both  intellect  and  will,  and  argues  at  length 
against  ascribing  them  to  God.  "  I  will  show," 
he  says,  "  that  neither  intellect  nor  will  belongs 
to  the  nature  of  God."  * 

"  If  intellect  and  will  belong  to  the  eternal 
essence  of  God,"  says  Spinoza,  reasoning  against 
the  supposition,  "  certainly  something  must  be 
understood  by  each  attribute  different  from  what 
men  commonly  mean.  For  the  intellect  and 
will  which  would  constitute  the  essence  of  God 
must  differ  entirely  from  our  intellect  and  will ; 
nor  could  there  be  any  correspondence  between 
them  except  in  name ;  that  is,  no  other  corre- 
spondence than  exists  between  the  constellation 
called  the  Dog,  and  a  dog  a  barking  animal ; 
which  I  will  thus  prove."  f 

The  purpose  of  Spinoza  is  to  prove  that  we 
cannot  ascribe  intellect  and  will  to  the  Deity  in 
any  intelligible  sense  of  the  words,  in  any  sense 
in  which  we  use  them,  and  therefore  that  it  is 
irrational  to  ascribe  them  to  the  Deity  at  all. 
He  gives  the  following  as  the  conclusion  of  his 
reasoning :  —  "  Therefore  the  intellect  of  God, 
so  far  as  it  is  conceived  of  as  constituting  the 

*  "  Ostendam,  ad  Dei  naturam  neque  intellectum,  neque  volun- 
tatem  pertinere."  —  Ibid.  Prop.  17,  SchoL,  p.  52. 
t  Ibid.  p.  53. 


344  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

divine  essence,"  that  is,  so  far  as  it  is  conceived 
of  as  an  essential  attribute  of  God,*  "  differs 
from  our  intellect  both  as  respects  its  essence 
and  existence,  and  can  agree  with  it  in  nothing 
but  in  name,  which  it  was  my  purpose  to 
prove."  It  was  of  course  the  purpose  of  Spi- 
noza to  prove  ultimately  the  proposition  which 
he  had  laid  down  at  the  commencement  of  his 
argument,  that  "  neither  intellect  nor  will  be- 
longs to  the  nature  of  God." 

But  though  the  denial  of  intellect  to  the  De- 
ity is  a  fundamental  characteristic  of  the  system 
of  Spinoza,  there  are  other  positions  in  his  sys- 
tem which  seem,  at  first  view,  irreconcilable 
with  it.  As  I  have  before  observed,  Spinoza 
supposes  that  but  two  attributes  of  his  God  can 
be  known  by  man,  and  these  are  infinite  exten- 
sion and  infinite  thought.  In  the  Second  Part 
of  his  Ethics,  (in  which  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
he  is  professedly  treating,  not  of  God,  but  of 
the  human  mind,)  his  first  Proposition  is :  — 
"  Thought  is  an  attribute  of  God  ;  or  God  is  a 
thinking  thing,"  res  cogitans^  —  which  strange 
expression  should  be  remarked.  He  says  that 
God   understands  or   knows   himself,   seipsum 

*  In  the  fourth  of  his  Definitions  (Part  I.)  he  says  :  —  "  By  an 
attribute  I  understand  that  which  the  intellect  perceives  concerning 
a  substance  as  constituting  its  essence." 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  345 

mtelliffit*  He  repeatedly  speaks,  in  this  Part 
and  elsewhere,  of  the  intellect  of  God.  He 
says  that  "  God  loves  himself  with  infinite  in- 
tellectual love."  f  And  what  is  remarkable,  he 
makes  no  express  attempt  to  reconcile  these  ap- 
parent contradictions.  But  the  solution  which 
he  does  afford,  without  expressly  recognizing 
the  contradiction,  is  altogether  consistent  with 
his  denying  intellect  to  God,  considered  as  the 
cause  of  all  things. 

This  solution  I  shall  first  state  in  my  own 
words,  thus :  —  All  nature,  the  universe  consid- 
ered as  an  effect,  consists  only  of  infinite  modes 
or  modifications  of  the  one  infinite  substance, 
the  God  of  Spinoza.  But  whatever  may  be  af- 
firmed of  the  modes  or  modifications  of  any  be- 
ing, taken  collectively,  may  be  afiirmed  of  that 
being  itself  Phenomenal  Nature  (Natura  na- 
turata)  is  as  truly  God  as  causal  Nature.  Now 
in  the  infinite  universe  there  are  infinite  thought 
and  intellect,  and  a  knowledge  or  understand- 
ing of  God  (for  according  to  Spinoza,  there  is 
nothing  else  to  be  known  or  understood  but 
God  J)  ;  and  all  this  may  be  predicated  of  God, 

*  Ethices  P.  II.  Prop.  3,  Schol.,  et  alibi, 
t  Ibid.  P.  V.  Prop.  35. 

%  "  Intellectus  actu  finitus,  aut  actu  infinitus,  Dei  attributa  Dei- 
que  affectiones  comprehendere  debet  et  nihil  aliud."  —  Ethices  P. 


346  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

considered,  not  as  a  cause,  but  as  phenomenal 
Nature,  I  shall  now  quote  to  this  effect  the 
words  of  Spinoza  himself. 

"  Actual  intellect,"  he  says,  that  is,  intellect 
actually  existing,*  "  whether  finite  or  infinite, 
as  also  will,  desire,  love,  &c.,  must  be  referred 
to  phenomenal  Nature  (ad  Naturam  naturatam), 
not  to  causal  Nature  (non  vero  ad  naturan- 
tem).-|- 

I.  Prop.  30.  Spinoza  here,  as  commonly,  uses  debet  in  the  sense 
of  must,  as  implying  logical  necessity. 

I  add  the  forty-seventh  Proposition  of  the  Second  Part  (p.  120) : 
"  Mens  humana  ad^quatam  habet  cognitionem  aeternas  et  infinitae 
essenliae  Dei." 

*  In  scholastic  language  the  terms  actual  and  potential  existence 
are  used  technically.  A  being  is  said  to  exist  actually  when  it 
really  exists  ;  to  exist  potentially,  when  it  does  not  really  exist,  but 
its  existence  is  possible.  Thus,  for  example,  the  rose  lying  on  the 
table  before  me  has  actual  existence  ;  the  same  rose,  last  winter, 
had  potential  existence,  or,  in  other  words,  its  existence  was  pos- 
sible. The  term  actual  is  expressed  in  scholastic  Latin  by  actu,  in 
actu,  [existens  being  understood,)  or  actualis,  and  potential  in  a 
similar  manner  by  potentid,  in  potentid,  or  potentialis.  Thus  it  is 
said  :  —  "  Per  essentiam  Ens  est  id  quod  est,  et  per  existentiam 
actu  est  quicquid  actu  atque  extra  suas  causas  est."  "  Esse  po- 
tentia  est  posse  existere,  ut  tamen  actu  non  existat." 

In  a  scholium  Spinoza  remarks  that  he  uses  the  term  intellectus 
actu,  that  his  meaning  may  be  perfectly  clear ;  not  because  he  al- 
lows the  existence  of  any  potential  intellect  {non  est  quia  concedo 
ullum  dari  intellectum  potentid) ;  —  that  is,  he  does  not  allow  the 
possibility  of  the  existence  of  any  intellect  in  the  universe  but 
what  does  exist. 

t  Ethices  P.  I.  Prop.  31,  p.  62. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  347 

This  ascribing  of  intellect  to  phenomenal  and 
not  to  causal  Nature  is  a  main  point  in  the  sys- 
tem of  Spinoza;  and  from  ignorance  of  it,  or 
inattention  to  it,  I  suppose  his  doctrine  con- 
cerning God  to  have  been  often  misunderstood. 
I  shall,  therefore,  produce  other  passages  to  the 
same  effect  as  that  just  quoted. 

"  Will  and  intellect  have  the  same  relation  to 
God  as  motion  and  rest,  and  generally  as  all 
natural  phenomena  {omnia  naturalia),  which 
are  necessarily  determined  by  God  to  exist  and 
operate  in  a  certain  manner 

"  Will  does  not  more  pertain  to  the  nature  of 
God  than  other  natural  phenomena,  but  has  the 
same  relation  to  it  as  motion  and  rest,  and  as 
all  other  natural  phenomena."  * 

That  is,  will  and  intellect  may  be  affirmed  of 
God  only  as  motion  and  rest  may  be  affirmed 
of  him ;  that  is,  only  of  God  considered  as  Na- 
tura  naturata,  phenomenal  Nature. 

In  the  Second  Part  of  his  Ethics  there  are 
many  passages  that  involve  the  main  idea  of 
the  following. 

"  A  knowledge  of  whatever  takes  place  in 
the  human  mind  necessarily  exists  in  God,  so 

*  Ibid.  Prop.  32,  Coroll.  2,  pp.  63,  64. 


348  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

far  as  he  constitutes  the  nature  of  the  human 
mind."  * 

Though  the  expression  of  the  following  pas- 
sage is  in  some  respects  obscure,  it  is  clear  as 
regards  our  present  purpose. 

"  It  appears  that  our  mind,  considered  as  in- 
telligent, is  an  eternal  mode  of  thought,  which 
is  limited  by  another  eternal  mode  of  thought,*]* 
and  that  again  by  another,  and  thus  to  infinity, 
so  that,  altogether,  they  [that  is,  human  minds, 
or  minds  like  the  human]  constitute  the  eter- 
nal and  infinite  intellect  of  God."  J 

"  I  think,"  he  says,  in  a  letter  to  his  disciple 
De  Vries,  "  that  I  have  clearly  and  evidently 
shown  that  intellect,  though  infinite,  belongs  to 
phenomenal^  and  not  to  causal  Nature^  § 

*  P.  11.  Prop.  12,  Demonstr.,  p.  88.  Conf.  Prop.  11,  Coroll. ; 
Prop.  38,  Demonstr. ;  Prop.  40,  Demonstr. ;  Prop.  43,  Demonstr. ; 
P.  III.  Prop.  1,  Demonstr. 

f  To  explain  Spinoza's  words,  "  eternal  mode  of  thought,"  we 
must  recur  to  the  fact,  that  he  regards  all  human  minds  as  modes 
or  modifications  of  the  eternal  and  infinite  attribute  of  cogitation  or 
intellect  which  he  ascribes  to  his  God,  and  as  partaking  of  the 
eternity  of  that  attribute.  "  Any  thing,"  he  says,  "  which  neces- 
sarily follows  from  the  absolute  nature  of  any  attribute  of  God  can- 
not have  a  determinate  duration,  but  through  the  same  attribute  is 
eternal."  —  P.  I.  Prop.  21,  Demonstr. 

We  have  passed  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  meaning ;  but  I  must 
advert  to  this  passage  hereafter  in  another  connection. 

X  P.  V.  Prop.  40,  Schol.,  p.  297. 

§  Epist.  27.     0pp.  I.  524. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  349 

There  is  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  Spinoza 
denies  to  his  God,  considered  as  the  cause  of  all 
things^  both  intellect  and  will.  But  he  also 
gave  the  name  of  God  to  what  we  call  the 
created  universe,  to  all  finite  things  regarded 
collectively,  to  the  modes  of  the  infinite  sub- 
stance produced  in  it  by  itself,  to  nature  con- 
sidered as  an  effect ;  and  to  this  he  ascribes  infi- 
nite intellect,  not  as  an  attribute  of  a  personal 
being,  but  meaning  by  that  term  the  infinite 
aggregate  of  intellect  which  exists  in  the  total- 
ity of  finite,  thinking  beings. 

The  expositors  of  Spinoza  who  regard  him  as 
an  authority  in  philosophy  and  religion  have 
been  perplexed  by  his  seemingly  opposite  asser- 
tions concerning  God  as  an  intelligent  being; 
but  have  none  of  them,  I  believe,  proceeded 
further  in  reconciling  these  assertions  than  one 
of  the  latest  of  their  number,  Sigwart,  who 
says :  —  "  The  contradictions  [contradiction] 
vhich  some  at  the  present  day  find  in  the  cir- 
cumstance, that  Spinoza  on  the  one  side  speaks 
of  a  self-knowledge  of  God,  of  an  idea  which 
God  has  of  his  being  and  its  necessary  conse- 
quences, and  on  the  other  side  places  intel- 
lect, even  infinite  intellect,  in  the  sphere  of 
phenomenal  Nature,  Natura  naturata,  are  [is] 

30 


350  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

not  altogether  insolvable But  this  is 

not  the  place  actually  to  give  a  solution  of  it; 
the  less  so,  because  Spinoza  himself  affords  no 
clew  for  such  a  solution."  *  But  without  af- 
fording any  satisfactory,  or  indeed  intelligible, 
means  of  reconciling  this  contradiction,  some 
of  his  expositors  (as  Sigwart  himself)  have  at- 
tempted to  prove  that  he  was  not  an  atheist,  by 
appealing  to  his  declarations  that  intellect  is 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  substance  or  being  that 
he  calls  God.  The  solution  that  I  have  given 
of  his  apparently  contradictory  language  may 
show  in  what  sense  these  declarations  are  to  be 
understood. 

As  we  have  already  seen,f  the  doctrine  of 
Spinoza  is,  that,  in  ascribing  intellect  and  will 
to  the  nature  of  God,  we  use  words  without 
meaning ;  that  they  can  express  nothing  resem- 
bling such  intellect  and  will  as  we  are  acquaint- 
ed with,  nothing  therefore  of  which  we  can 
form  a  conception.  In  what  follows  we  shall 
see  that  he  denies  the  existence  of  any  intellect 
or  will  in  God  having  relation  to  his  creatures, 
any  intellect  or  will  about  which  they  can  have 
any  concern. 

*  Der  Spinozismus  historisch  und  philosophisch  erlautert  (Tu- 
bingen, 1839),  pp.  127,  128. 
t  See  before,  p.  343. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  351 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  Spinoza,  that  all  the  phe- 
nomena in  the  universe  are  the  result  of  an  in- 
evitable necessity ;  of  the  necessary  operation 
of  the  laws  of  the  Divine  Nature,  or,  in  other 
words,  of  causal  Nature.  Nothing  could  be 
otherwise  than  as  it  is.*  According  to  him, 
there  is  no  benevolent  purpose  in  Nature.  He 
denies  that  his  God  proposes  to  himself  any 
purpose,  or  that  there  is  any  plan  in  the  uni- 
verse.f  "  Men  commonly  suppose,"  he  says, 
"  that  all  things  in  nature  act  for  some  end, 
like  themselves  ;  and  even  maintain,  as  indubi- 
table, that  God  himself  directs  all  things  to 
some  certain  end."  J  He  first  undertakes  to 
explain  the  origin  of  this  prejudice,  and  then 
to  prove  its  falsity.  "  The  prejudice,"  he  says, 
"  has  become  a  superstition,  and  struck  its 
roots  deep  into  men's  minds.  Hence  every  one 
strives  earnestly  to  understand  and  explain 
the  final  causes  of  all  things.  But  in  endeav- 
oring to  show  that  Nature  does  nothing  in  vain 
(that  is,  nothing  but  for  the  use  of  men),  they 
seem  to  have  shown  only  that  Nature  and  the 
Gods  are  as  foolish  as  men."  §     He  commences 

*  Ethices  P.  I.  Prop.  33,  pp.  64  seqq. 

t  P.  L  Appendix,  pp.  68-76.     Conf.  P.  IV.  Praefat.  pp.  200, 
201. 

X  Appendix,  p.  69. 
6  Ibid.  p.  70. 


352  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

his  second  head  by  saying  :  "  Not  many  words 
are  necessary  to  show,  that  Nature  proposes  to 
itself  no  end,  and  that  all  final  causes  are  noth- 
ing but  human  figments."  * 

"  The  opinion  of  those  who  subject  all 
things  to  "  what  Spinoza  calls  "  a  certain  indif- 
ferent will  of  God,  and  maintain  that  all  things 
depend  on  his  good  pleasure,  is  less  wide  from 
the  truth,"  he  says,  "  than  that  of  those  who 
maintain  that  God  does  all  things  with  refer- 
ence to  good."  f 

This  is  the  system  w^hich  has  had  so  powerful 
an  efiect  on  German  philosophy  and  theology, 
and  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  that  work  of 
Schleiermacher  in  which  the  eulogy  of  its  au- 
thor is  introduced. 

"  To  conceive  of  the  personality  of  God," 
says  Schleiermacher,  "  as  resembling  human 
personality,  commonly  implies  a  consciousness 
which  is  even  morally  impure."  There  is  a  great 
difference,  according  to  him,  between  conceiv-* 
ing  of  God  as  having  this  sort  of  personality, 
and  believing  in  a  living  God.  "  Every  one 
may  be  accounted  pious  who  believes  in  a  liv- 
ing God."  J     Truly  religious  men  have  never 

*  Ethices  P.  I.  Appendix,  p.  71. 
t  P.  I.  Prop.  33,  Schol.  2,  p.  67. 
%  Ueber  die  ReKgion,  p.  141. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  353 

been  zealous  for  the  conception  of  the  person- 
ality of  God,  "  and  so  far  as  by  atheism  is 
meant,  as  is  often  the  case,  nothing  more  than 
a  shrinking  back  from  it,  and  doubt  concerning 
it,  a  truly  pious  man  will  regard  the  existence 
of  this  around  him  with  great  indifference."  * 

In  this  passage  human  personality  is  implied- . 
ly  denied  to  God.  But  personality  is  but  of 
one  kind,  admitting  no  modifications  or  de- 
grees. The  word  must  have  the  same  mean- 
ing, whether  used  of  a  man,  an  angel,  or  the  Di- 
vinity. To  deny  human  personality  to  God,  or 
personality  like  that  of  man,  is  to  deny  a  per- 
sonal God.  The  epithet  "  human  "  can  serve 
merely  as  a  blind,  or  to  suggest  that  it  is  allow- 
able to  use  the  word  "  personality "  in  some 
sense  of  which  we  have  no  conception. 

It  is  further  implied,  that  God  is  a  living 
God.  There  is  one  sense  of  the  word  "  living," 
in  which  we  speak  of  organic  material  bodies 
as  living.  There  is  but  one  other  sense,  that 
in  which  the  term  is  applied  to  beings  capa- 
ble of  perception,  possessing  mind  in  some 
degree  or  other.  Unless  it  be  contended  that 
God  is  a  material  organization,  it  is  in  the  lat- 
ter class  of  beings  that  he  must  be  included. 


*  Ibid.  p.  117. 
30* 


354  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

To  apply,  then,  to  him  the  epithet  of  living^ 
meaning  a  living  being  possessed  of  mind,  and 
to  deny  his  personality,  —  that  is,  to  deny  his 
consciousness  of  his  own  existence,  to  represent 
him  as  utterly  passive  and  powerless,  for  a  be- 
ing can  exercise  no  power  of  which  he  is  un- 
,  conscious,  —  to  bring  together  these  ideas,  and 
all  the  others  connected  with  them,  is  to  pre- 
sent as  gross  an  absurdity  as  the  mind  is  capa- 
ble of  entertaining. 

Of  the  new  theology  Schleiermacher  was  at 
one  time  considered  an  oracle.  In  further 
illustration  of  its  character  I  will  give  an  ex- 
tract from  him  relating  to  the  fundamental  doc- 
trine of  Christianity,  the  immortality  of  man. 

"  I  believe,"  he  says,  "  that  I  have  fully  set 
before  you  the  manner  in  which  every  pious 
person  has  within  him.  an  unchangeable  and 
eternal  existence.  For,  when  our  feeling 
cleaves  to  nothing  individual,  but  embraces  as 
its  sole  object  our  relation  to  God,  in  which  all 
that  is  individual  and  perishable  is  swallowed 
up,  then  is  there  nothing  perishable  in  it,  but 
only  what  is  eternal ;  and  it  may  truly  be  said, 
that  the  religious  life  is  that  in  which  we  have 
already  sacrificed  and  renounced  all  that  is 
mortal,  and  actually  enjoy  immortality.  But 
the  manner  in  which  most  men  conceive  of  im- 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  355 

mortality,  and  their  longing  after  it,  appear  to 
me  irreligious,  and  directly  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  piety.  Nay,  their  wish  to  be  immortal 
has  no  other  ground  than  an  aversion  to  what 
is  the  aim  of  religion."  The  great  aim  of  relig- 
ion, he  goes  on  to  say  (as  I  formerly  explained 
his  doctrine),  is  the  divesting  ourselves  of  our 
personality,  and  the  becoming  one  with  the 
Infinite.  But  those,  he  proceeds,  who  receive 
the  common  doctrine  of  immortality,  struggle 
against  this ;  "  they  are  anxiously  concerned 
about  their  personality ;  and  thus,  far  from  be- 
ing willing  to  seize  their  only  opportunity  to 
rise  superior  to  it,  —  that  afforded  them  by 
death,  —  they  are  anxious  how  they  shall  take 
it  with  them  beyond  this  life;  and  aspire,  at 
most,  for  eyes  of  wider  vision  and  better  limbs. 
But  God  speaks  to  them,  as  it  is  written,  '  He 
who  loses  his  life  for  my  sake  will  preserve  it, 
and  he  who  would  preserve  it  will  lose  it.'  The 
life  which  they  would  preserve  is  one  not  to  be 

preserved The  more  they  long  after  an 

immortality  which  is  none,  and  which  they  are 
not  even  capable  of  conceiving,  (for  who  can 
succeed  in  the  effort  to  represent  to  himself  an 
existence  in  time  as  eternal?)  the  more  they 
lose  of  that  immortality  which  they  might  ever 
possess,  and  lose  with  it  this  mortal  life,  by  in- 


356  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

dulging  thoughts  that  cause  vain  anxiety  and 

distress.* The  aim  and  character  of  a 

religious  life  is  not  such  an  immortality  as  many 
wish  for  and  believe  in ;  —  or,  perhaps,  only 
pretend  to  believe  in ;  for  their  desire  to  know 
too  much  of  it  makes  their  belief  very  suspi- 

*  Schleiermacher  well  knew  how  to  mock  with  some  lip-phrase ; 
and,  conformably  to  this,  he  here  introduces  a  passage  which  it  is 
proper  to  quote. 

"  He  who  has  learned  to  be  more  than  himself  knows  that  he 
loses  little  when  he  loses  himself.  Only  he  who,  thus  renoun- 
cing himself,  has  become  blended,  as  far  as  in  his  power,  with  the 
whole  universe,  and  in  whose  soul  a  greater  and  holier  desire  has 
sprung  up,  —  only  he  has  a  right  to,  and  only  with  him  may  there 
really  be,  any  further  discourse  of  those  hopes  which  death  gives 
us,  and  of  the  infinity  to  which  we  may  infallibly  raise  ourselves 
through  it." 

It  would  be  idle  to  inquire  what  hopes  and  what  infinity 
Schleiermacher  would  hold  out  to  a  being  whose  personal  exist- 
ence is  to  cease  with  death. 

An  expression  which  I  have  used  above,  in  connection  with  the 
whole  subject,  brings  to  my  mind  a  passage  of  much  beauty  from 
a  late  poem  :  — 

"  Is  it  a  boon,  when  dissolution's  strife 
Hangs,  trembling,  o'er  the  bed  of  child  or  wife, 
And  the  poor  sufferer  turns  amid  her  pain. 
And  looks,  and  strives  to  say,  '  We  meet  again,'  — 
Is  it  a  boon  to  stand  in  anguish  by. 
And  meet  with  some  lip-phrase  that  clinging  eye, 
Whilst  the  sad  sceptic  heart  makes  no  reply  ? 
Then,  bending  o'er  the  tomb  to  which  she  sank. 
Present  to  feel —  and  Future  —  one  mere  blank?  " 

Kenyon's  Bhymed  Plea  for  Tolerance. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  357 

cious ;  —  not  that  immortality  which  is  out  of 
time  and  after  time,  or  rather  only  after  the 
present  time,  yet  still  in  time ;  but  the  immor- 
tality which  already,  in  this  temporal  life,  we 
may  immediately  possess,  and  which  is  a  prob- 
lem in  the  solution  of  which  we  are  continu- 
ally engaged.  In  the  midst  of  finiteness  to  be- 
come one  with  the  Infinite,  and  to  be  eternal 
in  every  moment,  —  that  is  the  immortality  of 
religion."  * 

Such  is  the  conclusion  of  Schleiermacher's 
Discourse  on  the  Essence  of  Religion.  In  his 
note  on  the  passage  I  have  quoted,  he  says :  "  I 
wish  nothing  more  than  that  every  man  may 
see  himself,  not  only  divested  of  all  the  foreign 
apparel  for  which  he  is  indebted  to  the  out- 
ward circumstances  of  life,  but  also  after  hav- 
ing laid  aside  these  pretensions  to  an  endless 
existence  ;  in  order  that  he  may  determine,  when 
he  regards  himself  such  as  he  really  is,  whether 
these  pretensions  be  any  thing  more  than  such 
titles  as  the  mighty  of  the  earth  often  deck 
themselves  with,  to  countries  which  they  have 
never  possessed,  nor  will  possess."  f 

According  to  Schleiermacher,  we   may  "  be 

*  Ueber  die  Religion,  pp.  118  -  121. 
flbid.  p.  141. 


358  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

eternal  in  every  moment."  This  is  one  of  those 
propositions  of  such  startling  absurdity,  that 
they  may  create  a  momentary  suspicion  that 
some  portentous  truth  is  veiled  in  their  dark- 
ness. But  in  this  sentence,  no  truth,  literally 
or  figuratively  expressed,  is  to  be  discovered. 

Eternity  involves  an  idea,  the  idea  of  infinity, 
the  full  comprehension  of  which  transcends  the 
powders  of  the  human  mind.  We  can  have  no 
other  conception  of  infinity  than  as  the  absence 
of  all  limitation.  Time  without  limitation  is 
the  only  idea  we  can  have  of  eternity.  The 
proposition,  that  we  may  be  eternal  in  every 
moment,  has  no  other  significance  than  that  we 
may  live  an  unlimited  duration  in  every  mo- 
ment. 

The  words  of  this  proposition  cannot  be  un- 
derstood as  improperly  used  in  a  transitive  or 
figurative  signification;  for  no  such  significa- 
tion can  be  assigned  to  them.  In  this,  as  well 
as  in  other  passages  of  the  theologians  and 
metaphysicians  of  the  modern  school,  the  word 
"  eternal"  is  so  connected  as  to  show  that  it  re- 
quires to  be  understood  as  denoting  unlimited 
duration.  Here,  in  the  passage  before  us,  the 
eternal  existence  which  may  be  enjoyed  every 
moment  is  directly  opposed  to  the  immortality, 
the  never-ending  existence,  which  the  Christian 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  359 

hopes  for  after  death ;  and  the  antithesis  would 
he  futile  if  by  the  eternity  to  be  enjoyed  in 
every  moment  were  signified  any  thing  else 
than  a  never-ending  existence.  Such  is  the 
character  of  the  proposition.  But  we  cannot 
suppose  that  any  man  having  the  use  of  his 
reason  could  enunciate  it  in  the  only  sense 
which  the  significations  of  its  separate  words 
admit.  There  would  be  no  greater  folly  in  af- 
firming, that,  when  we  occupy  any  portion  of 
extension,  we  fill  infinite  space.  It  is  a  mysti- 
col  proposition,  put  forward  in  the  vain  hope 
that  some  hazy  meaning  may  gather  round  it. 

This  unintelligible  abuse  of  the  words  "eter- 
nal" and  "  eternity  "  is  derived  from  Spinoza. 
According  to  him,  "  individual  things  are  noth- 
ing but  affections  or  modes  of  the  attributes 
of  God."*  They  follow  necessarily  from  the 
nature  of  God,  "  and  whatever  follows  necessa- 
rily from  the  absolute  nature  of  any  attribute 
of  God  cannot  have  a  determinate  duration, 
but  through  the  same  attribute  is  eternal."  f 
He  compares  individual  things  to  "  eternal 
truths,"  which  have  no  relation  to  time.  %     "  If 


*  Ethices  P.  I.  Prop.  25,  CorolL 
f  Ibid.  Prop  21,  Demonstr. 

I  Ibid.  Definit.    8,   Explicat.,  compared   with   the   subsequent 
references  to  it  in  his  work.     It  is  perhaps  hardly  necessary  to  ob- 


360  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

we  attend  to  the  common  opinion  of  men,"  he 
says,  "we  shall  see  that  they  are  conscious  of 
the  eternity  of  their  minds,  but  confound  eter- 
nity with  duration,  attributing  it  to  the  imagi- 
nation or  memory  which  they  believe  to  remain 
after  death."  *  And  so  on,  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctly, in  various  passages. 

The  last  conspicuous  manifestation  of  the 
character  of  the  new  theology  appears  in  the 
writings  of  Strauss.  Few  products  of  this  the- 
ology, I  might  rather  say  none,  have  excited  so 
much  attention  as  his  "  Life  of  Jesus,  critically 
treated,"  —  an  attack,  as  has  been  before  men- 
tioned, on  the  credibility  of  the  Gospels.  To- 
ward the  end  of  this  work  he  gives  his  view  of 
what  he  calls  the  Christology,  meaning,  I  sup- 
pose, the  doctrine  concerning  Christ.  The  pas- 
sage taken  as  a  whole  has  no  meaning,  prop- 
erly speaking,  that  is,  it  presents  no  sequence  of 
ideas  which  the  understanding  is  capable  of  re- 
ceiving, yet  it  is  still  a  very  instructive  one,  as 
showing  the  character  of  those  speculations 
which  had  become  popular  among  his  readers. 

serve,  that,  in  speaking  of  eternal  truths,  we  use  the  word  in  its 
common  acceptation,  as  meaning  what  always  have  been  and  al- 
ways will  be  truths,  in  contradistinction  from  such  as  are  true  only 
in  reference  to  particular  temporary  circumstances. 
»  Ethices  P.  V.  Prop.  34,  Schol. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  361 

"  The  key  of  the  whole  Christology,"  he  says, 
"is  this,  that  the  subject  of  those  predicates 
which  the  Church  ascribes  to  Christ  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  an  individual,  but  as  an  Idea  ;  a 
real  Idea^  however, — not  as,  according  to  Kant, 
an  imaginary  one.  Considered  as  existing  in 
an  individual,  in  a  God-man,  the  attributes  and 
offices  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  as- 
cribes to  Christ  are  inconsistent  with  each  other ; 
in  the  Idea  of  the  species,  they  agree  together. 
Humanity  is  the  union  of  the  two  natures,  it 
is  God  become  man ;  the  Infinite  Spirit  re- 
nouncing its  infinity  and  becoming  finite,  and 
the  finite  spirit  conscious  of  its  infinity.*  It  is 
the  child  of  the  visible  mother  and  the  invisi- 
ble father ;  of  Spirit  and  of  Nature.  It  is  the 
worker  of  miracles ;  inasmuch  as,  in  the  prog- 

*  This  language  refers  to  the  doctrines  of  Hegel,  whose  meta- 
physical system  is  of  the  latest  fashion  in  Germany,  and  who 
maintains  the  unity  of  Spirit,  human  and  divine,  as  the  element  of 
the  universe ;  or,  in  the  words  of  Strauss  (Vol.  II.  p.  709),  which 
cannot  be  rendered  into  English  so  as  to  give  a  show  of  meaning  ; 
"dass  der  gottliche  Geist  in  seiner  Entausserung  und  Erniedri- 
gung  der  menschliche,  und  der  menschliche  in  seiner  Einkehr  in 
sich  und  Erhebung  iiber  sich  der  gottliche  ist "  ;  "  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  in  its  renunciation  and  abasement  is  the  human,  and  the  hu- 
man in  its  withdraival  into  itself,  and  its  elevation  above  itself,  is  the 
Divine  ^\-  or,  as  he  elsevt'here  expresses  it,  that  **  God  and  man 
are  in  themselves  [essentially]  one  "  :  "  Gott  und  Mensch  an  sich 
sind  Eins." 

31 


362  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

ress  of  man's  history,  the  spirit  is  continually 
obtaining  more  full  mastery  over  nature,  both 
in  man  and  around  him ;  nature  becoming  sub- 
jected to  its  activity  as  a  powerless  material. 
Humanity  is  the  sinless  ;  inasmuch  as  the  pro- 
cess of  its  development  is  blameless ;  pollution 
cleaves  only  to  the  individual,  but  in  the  spe- 
cies, and  in  its  history,  is  thrown  off.  It  is 
Humanity  that  dies,  and  rises  from  the  dead, 
and  ascends  to  heaven ;  inasmuch  as,  through 
the  negation  of  its  naturality  [what  in  its  com- 
position belongs  to  nature],  it  is  continually  at- 
taining a  higher  spiritual  life,  and  by  throwing 
off  its  finiteness,  as  a  personal,  national  spirit, 
a  spirit  of  this  world,  its  unity  with  the  infinite 
spirit  of  heaven  is  brought  out.  Through  faith 
in  this  Christ,  particularly  in  his  death  and  res- 
urrection, is  man  justified  before  God ;  that  is 
to  say,  through  the  quickening  of  the  Idea  of 
Humanity  within  him  the  individual  becomes  a 
partaker  of  the  divinely  human  life  of  the  spe- 
cies ;  —  conformably  to  the  fact,  that  the  nega- 
tion of  naturality  and  sensuality  *  —  which  is 
but  the  negation  of  a  negation,  seeing  that  they 
are  but  the  negation  of  the  spiritual  —  is  the 
only  way  for  men  to  attain  the  true  spiritual 
life. 

*  Sinnlichkeit :  —  See  before,  p.  287. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  363 

"  This  alone  is  the  absolute  purport  of  the 
Christology.  That  this  appears  connected  with 
the  person  and  history  of  an  individual,  belongs 
merely  to  its  historical  form."  * 

Such  a  passage  is  adapted  to  give  a  strong 
impression  of  the  state  of  intellectual  action  in 
a  country,  v^here  writing  of  this  kind,  instead 
of  being  received  with  universal  wonder  and 
derision,  was  regarded  as  matter  of  grave  dis- 
cussion, and  as  belonging  to  the  highest  depart- 
ment of  philosophy. 

The  latest  development  which  I  have  seen  of 
the  results  to  which  the  new  theology  has  ar- 
rived is  in  the  work  of  Strauss,  before  men- 
tioned, on  the  "  Doctrines  of  Christianity," 
which  appeared  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
fourth  edition  of  his  "  Life  of  Jesus."  In  that 
work  he  maintains  the  doctrine  of  Hegel  con- 
cerning what  Hegel  calls  God,  and  defends  it, 
against  some  of  his  mistaken  disciples,  from  the 
imputation  of  resembling  the  Christian  doc- 
trine, or  that  of  any  believer  in  the  personality 
of  the  Supreme  Being.  The  concluding  chap- 
ters of  the  work  are  occupied  with  an  attack 
on  the  belief  of  the  future  life,  and  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  His  last  words  are 
these :  — 

*  Leben  Jesu  (4th  ed.),  II.  709-711. 


364  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

"  If  now  the  question  be  asked,  what  there  is 
positive  to  set  against  these  negations  [involving 
the  denial  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul],  the 
whole  answer  (as  Hegel  too  remarks)  amounts 
to  this;  —  that  immortality  is  not  to  be  conceived 
of  as  something  future,  but  as  a  present  quality 
of  the  spirit,  as  its  inherent  universality,  its  pow- 
er of  raising  itself  above  all  finite  things  to  the 
Ideal,  If  men  are  accustomed  also  to  give  the 
name  of  Eternity  to  the  life  after  death,  this 
involves  essentially  the  same  requisite  to  its 
right  apprehension.  Hence,  thinkers,  who  are 
in  other  respects  on  the  right  track,  at  once  take 
a  wrong  course  when  they  sometimes  so  express 
themselves  as  if,  after  the  manner  of  the  an- 
cients, they  would  make  immortality  consist  in 
posthumous  fame,  in  the  continued  results  of 
noble  efforts,  or  even  in  being  propagated 
through  one's  descendants,  —  in  the  reappear- 
ance in  another  of  the  Idea  of  Humanity* 
[Idea  constituting  a  man] ,  which  had  perished 
in  one  individual.  The  blessed  results  of  the 
actions  of  eminent  men  after  their  death,  and 


*  This  language  —  one  cannot  say  the  conception,  for  there  is 
none  —  is  borrowed  from  Spinoza,  according  to  whom  men  are 
only  ideas ;  an  idea  in  God  constituting  their  "  essence  and  exist- 
ence." See  particularly  the  Second  Book  of  his  Ethics,  from  the 
seventh  to  the  eleventh  Proposition. 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  365 

the  continuance  of  their  names,  are  only  a  re- 
flex of  what  was  to  them  during  life  a  present 
enjoyment  of  eternity,  —  occupation,  namely, 
with  essential  interests,  labor  in  the  Ideal, 
So,  too,  the  continuance  of  the  species  is  a  reflex 
of  the  present  enjoyment  of  family  love ;  —  and 
the  metamorphosis  of  the  universe  is,  not  in  its 
endless  course,  but  as  something  recognized, 
and  thus,  consequently,  apprehended  as  present, 
an  eternalization  of  the  spirit.  The  exhorta- 
tion of  Schleiermacher,  '  In  the  midst  of  finite- 
ness  to  become  one  with  the  Infinite,  and  to  be 
eternal  in  every  moment,'  is  all  that  modern  sci- 
ence has  to  say  about  immortality. 

"  Here,  for  the  present,  our  business  ends. 
For  the  other  world  is,  in  all  respects,  the  one 
enemy,  and,  in  its  aspect  as  future,  the  last  en- 
emy, which  speculative  criticism  has  to  encoun- 
ter, and,  if  possible,  to  overcome." 

"  And  this,  then,  is  thy  faith !  "  And  he  who 
announces  it,  and  anticipates  its  victory,  instead 
of  veiling  his  head  in  abasement  and  utter  des- 
olation of  spirit,  is  contemplating  with  compla- 
cency a  time  when  God  and  religion  shall  be 
dispossessed  of  the  world,  and  nothing  shall  re- 
main but  atheism,  despair,  the  lowest  moral  and 
mental  degradation,   and   German  philosophy, 

31* 


366  THE  MODERN  GERMAN 

looking  on  with  an  idiot  grin  of  triumph  at  its 
final  success. 


''  And  this,  then,  is  thy  faith  !  this  monstrous  creed  ! 
This  lie  against  the  Sun,  and  Moon,  and  Stars, 

And  Earth,  and  Heaven ! 

And  know  ye  not. 
That  leagued  against  ye  are  the  Just  and  Wise, 
And  all  Good  Actions  of  all  ages  past. 
Yea,  your  own  Crinies,  and  Truth,  and  God  in  Heaven?  " 


Throughout  a  great  part  of  the  civilized 
world,  men  are  restlessly  craving  for  better 
forms  of  society  and  government ;  for  a  deliver- 
ance  from  evils  which  they  feel  themselves,  and 
which  they  see  crushing  others.  Many  are  in 
the  temper  of  unreasoning  patients,  so  diseased 
and  suffering  that  they  are  ready  to  adopt  the 
pretended  remedies  of  any  impostor  who  boldly 
promises  relief  But  the  cure  of  long-contin- 
ued evils  in  a  nation  is  analogous  to  the  cure 
of  long- continued  diseases  in  an  individual.  It 
must  be  gradual ;  it  must  be  accomplished  with 
great  patience  and  care ;  or  the  attempt  to  re- 
lieve may  only  aggravate  the  suffering.  The 
existence  of  a  well-organized  state  of  society  is 
solely  the  result  of  the  character  of  the  indi- 
viduals who  compose  it.  Many  seem  to  think 
that  republican  institutions  are  the  grand  spe- 


SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY.  367 

cific  for  the  evils  which  exist ;  but  a  republic, 
to  escape  the  worst  disorders,  to  escape  the  loss 
of  its  essential  character,  if  not  of  its  very  form 
and  name,  must  have  for  its  foundation  the  re- 
ligious and  moral  principles  of  those  who  con- 
stitute and  control  it.  In  the  most  favored 
portions  of  our  own  land  it  is  to  the  influence 
of  moral  principle,  to  the  strong  action  of  the 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  to  the  sympathy  of 
man  with  man,  that  we  owe  our  protection  and 
security ;  —  not  to  the  immediate  authority  of 
government,  nor  to  the  exercise  of  civil  or  mil- 
itary force.  Where  this  moral  control  does 
not  exist,  order  can  be  preserved  in  a  state  only 
by  substituting  in  its  place  human  power,  — 
arbitrary  power  lodged  in  the  hands  of  an  in- 
dividual or  a  class,  whose  self-interest  it  is 
to  prevent  lawless  and  disorganizing  violence. 
The  less  there  is  of  moral  principle  in  a  com- 
munity, the  more  stringent  and  irresponsible 
must  be  the  power  by  which  it  is  controlled. 
The  government  of  banditti  or  of  pirates  must 
be  despotic ;  and  when  a  republic  of  unprinci- 
pled men  is  sinking,  as  it  will,  into  anarchy 
and  the  bloody  strifes  of  faction,  the  only  ref- 
uge is  a  dictator.  The  attempt  to  establish 
freedom  among  people  unprepared  to  feel  and 
act  as  freemen,  has  been  often  enough  repeated 


368         GERMAN   SCHOOL  OF  INFIDELITY. 

in  our  time  to  satisfy  one  as  to  what  must  be  its 
result.  It  is  but  four  years  since,  that  the  op- 
pressed and  the  reformers  of  Germany  possessed 
themselves  of  the  supreme  power,  but  they  were 
ignorant  what  to  do  with  it.  Even  if  they  had 
had  the  wisest  ends,  they  would  have  been  un- 
able to  employ  their  power  to  any  good  pur- 
pose. The  materials  to  be  worked  upon,  the 
individuals  to  be  governed,  had  not  the  strong 
sense  of  religion,  and  of  the  obligations  of  man 
to  man,  which  are  necessary  to  bind  men  togeth- 
er in  a  well-regulated  society,  —  principles  the 
want  of  which  can  be  supplied  by  no  human 
institutions,  no  written  constitutions  or  laws. 

Whatever  tends  to  weaken  the  authority  of 
religion,  the  authority  of  God,  tends  equally  to 
the  destruction  of  human  happiness,  and,  espe- 
cially, in  reference  to  the  topic  immediately  be- 
fore us,  to  the  destruction  of  all  hope  of  better 
forms  of  human  society.  These  must  rest  on 
the  laws  of  God.  Of  his  laws  all  human  laws 
of  binding  force  are  but  declaratory ;  from  them 
they  derive  all  their  intrinsic  authority.  They 
are  obeyed  because  conscience  enforces  obedi- 
ence, —  and  this  is  perfect  freedom.  All  other 
obedience  to  human  laws  must  be  only  that 
which  the  direct  or  indirect  dread  of  human 
power  is  able  to  compel. 


ON  THE 

OBJECTION    TO    FAITH    IN    CHRISTIANITY, 

AS     RESTING    ON 

HISTORICAL    FACTS    AND    CRITICAL 
LEARNING. 


First  published  in  1839,  as  a  note  to  the  Discourse  on 
the  Latest  Form  of  Infidelity. 


ON    AN 


OBJECTION  TO  FAITH  IN  CHEISTIANITY. 


In  the  attempts  of  the  German  theologians 
of  the  new  school  to  separate  what  they  call 
Christianity  from  its  historical  relations  and  its 
connection  with  the  New  Testament,  very  much 
has  been  imperfectly  and  obscurely  said  upon 
the  impossibility  of  resting  religious  faith  on 
such  foundations.  What  is  said,  though  often 
not  altogether  intelligible,  evidently  refers  to  a 
view  of  the  subject  which  it  is  important  to 
consider;  and  to  objections  that  may  arise  in 
an  intelligent  mind.  I  will  endeavor  to  state 
them  distinctly  in  my  own  words.     * 

It  may  be  objected,  then,  to  Christianity,  that 
religion  is  a  universal  want,  and  should  be 
founded  on  some  universal  principle  of  our  na- 
ture ;  but  that  Christianity,  on  the  contrary, 
rests  on  something  extrinsic  to  our  nature,  on 


372  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

testimony.     That  not  only  does  this  testimony 
in  itself  admit  of  doubt,  but  that  it  requires  in- 
vestigation.    That  the  capacity  and  the  means 
of  a  proper  investigation  of  it  are  far  from  be- 
ing common  to  all ;  and  that  many,  or  rather  a 
large  majority,  must  therefore  receive  Christian- 
ity, if  they  do  receive  it,  without  any  satisfac- 
tory evidence  of  its  truth.     Nor  is  this  all ;  it 
may  be  further  objected,  that  the  history  of  this 
supposed  miraculous  revelation  is  contained  in 
certain  books.     In  them  are  to  be  found  the 
doctrines  supposed  to  be  made  known.     But  a 
question  immediately  arises  respecting  the  gen- 
uineness of  those  books.     It  cannot  be  certain- 
ly  proved;    for  certainty  is  inconsistent   with 
the  nature  of  the  only  evidence  that  can  be  pro- 
duced.   This  evidence  is,  furthermore,  such  as 
requires  much  learning  and  study  to  enable  any 
one,    by  himself,  to  estimate  its  force.     And, 
supposing  the  genuineness  of  the  books  to  be 
rendered  probable,   they    are   in   ancient    lan- 
guages, understood  by  few ;  and  even  when  the 
language  is  mastered,  still  much  various  knowl- 
edge is  further  necessary  to  give  them  a  prob- 
able explanation.     By  the  generality,  therefore, 
the  historical  fact  of  a  revelation,  the  genuine- 
ness of  its  supposed  records,  and  the  purport  of 
its  supposed  doctrines,  must  all  be  received  on 


IN   CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  373 

trust ;  and  the  few  who  have  the  capacity  and 
means  of  investigation  can,  at  best,  attain  to 
nothing  more  than  probable,  not  certain,  con- 
clusions ;  whereas  religion,  to  be  universal, 
should  have  an  assured  foundation  in  the  very 
nature  of  man.  It  can  rest  upon  nothing  ex- 
trinsic to  it. 

I  have  endeavored  to  state  these  considera- 
tions, which  well  deserve  attention,  with  clear- 
ness and  force ;  avoiding  those  loose  assertions, 
and  that  indefinite  language,  which  some  have 
fallen  into  from  want  of  a  distinct  apprehension 
of  what  it  was  their  purpose  to  urge.  Let  us 
now  see  what  other  view  can  be  taken  of  the 
subject. 

In  one  sense,  and  an  obvious  sense  of  the 
words,  religion  is  a  universal  want  of  man.  It 
is  required  for  the  development  of  his  moral 
-and  spiritual  powers.  He  is  suffering,  tempt- 
ed, 9,nd  imperfect ;  and  he  needs  it  for  consola- 
tion, for  strength  to  resist,  and  for  encourage- 
ment to  make  progress.  It  is  connected,  not 
with  any  particular  faculty  or  faculties,  but 
with  the  whole  nature  of  man  as  a  moral  and 
immortal  being,  a  creature  of  God.  But  relig- 
ious principle  and  feeling,  however  important, 
are  necessarily  founded  on  the  belief  of  certain 
facts ;  of  the  existence  and  providence  of  God^ 

33 


374  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

and  of  man's  immortality.  Now  the  evidence 
of  these  facts  is  not  intuitive;  and  whatever 
ground  for  the  belief  of  them  may  be  afforded 
by  the  phenomena  of  nature,  or  the  ordinary 
course  of  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  general- 
ity of  men  have  never  been  able  by  their  un- 
assisted reason  to  obtain  assurance  concerning 
them.  Out  of  the  sphere  of  those  enlightened 
by  Divine  revelation,  neither  the  belief  nor  the 
imagination  of  them  has  operated  with  any  con- 
siderable effect  to  produce  the  religious  char- 
acter. The  belief  of  these  facts,  if  it  exist  inde- 
pendently of  Christian  faith,  must  either  be  a 
mere  prejudice,  or  must  be  a  deduction  of  rea- 
son. But  the  process  of  reasoning  required  to 
attain  the  assurance  of  a  Christian,  if  it  might 
have  been  successfully  pursued  by  a  very  wise, 
enlightened,  and  virtuous  heathen,  never  was 
thus  pursued;  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to. 
say,  that,  to  the  generality  of  the  heathen  world 
before  Christianity,  the  facts,  that  there  is  a 
God,  in  the  Christian  sense  of  that  name,  that 
man  is  immortal,  and  that  the  present  life  is  a 
state  of  preparation  for  the  future,  were  not 
matters  of  religious  faith.  Nor  was  there  any 
likelihood  that  without  Christianity  they  would 
ever  become  so.  In  rejecting  Christianity,  be- 
cause it  requires  a  process  of  reasoning  to  es- 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  375 

tablish  its  truth,  if  we  attempt  to  provide  any- 
other  foundation  for  religion,  it  can  only  be 
by  having  recourse  to  a  different  process  of 
reasoning,  which  experience  has  shown  to  be 
inefficacious,  as  respects  a  great  majority  of 
men. 

But  the  rejection  of  Christianity  on  the 
ground  just  stated,  and  the  pretence  that  the 
only  true,  universal  source  of  religion  is  to  be 
found  in  the  common  nature  of  man,  have  been 
connected  by  many  with  the  rejection  of  all  the 
reasoning  by  which  those  facts  that  are  the  ba- 
sis of  religion  may  be  otherwise  rendered  prob- 
able ;  and  often  with  the  rejection  of  all  belief 
in  the  facts  themselves.  The  religion  of  which 
they  speak,  therefore,  exists  merely,  if  it  exist 
at  all,  in  undefined  and  unintelligible  feelings, 
having  reference,  perhaps,  to  certain  imagina- 
tions, the  result  of  impressions  communicated 
in  childhood,  or  produced  by  the  visible  signs 
of  religious  belief  existing  around  us,  or  awak- 
ened by  the  beautiful  and  magnificent  specta- 
cles which  nature  presents.  Sometimes,  as  we 
have  elsewhere  seen,  they  are  represented  as 
being  excited  by  a  system  of  pantheism  ;  a  doc- 
trine that  rejects  all  proper  religious  belief,  and 
does  not  admit  of  being  stated  in  words  ex- 
pressing  a   rational   meaning.      In    this    case, 


376  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

whatever  feelings  may  exist,  they  can  have  no 
claim  to  be  called  religious. 

There  is,  then,  no  mode  of  establishing  re- 
ligious belief  but  by  the  exercise  of  reason, 
by  investigation,  by  forming  a  probable  judg- 
ment upon  facts.  Christianity,  in  requiring 
this  process,  requires  nothing  more  than  any 
other  form  of  religion  must  do.  He  who  on 
this  account  rejects  it,  cannot  have  recourse  to 
Natural  Eeligion.  This  can  oiFer  him  no  relief 
from  the  necessity  of  reasoning ;  and  still  less 
can  it  pretend  to  give  him  any  higher  assurance 
than  Christianity  affords.  If  its  voice  be  lis- 
tened to,  it  will  only  direct  him  back  to  Chris- 
tianity. If  he  will  not  refrain  from  using  the 
name  of  religion,  his  only  resource  to  escape 
the  diificulty  and  uncertainty  of  reasoning  is  to 
take  refuge  in  some  cloud  of  mysticism,  that 
belies  the  form  of  religion. 

From  those  who  reject  Christianity  on  ac- 
count of  the  labor  necessary  in  fully  ascertain- 
ing its  evidences  and  character,  it  may  reason- 
ably be  required,  that,  whatever  be  the  new 
form  of  religion  which  they  propose,  it  shall 
be  generally  intelligible,  and  established  by 
proofs  not  requiring  an  effort  of  thought  to 
be  expected  only  from  disciplined  minds  ;  and 
proofs,  at  the  same  time,  as  satisfactory  as  they 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  377 

are  easy  to  be  understood.  But  the  contrast  is 
very  great  between  this  reasonable  requirement 
and  the  character  of  the  writings  of  those  by 
whom  the  objection  is  urged.  On  the  one 
hand,  these  writings  are  evidently  not  adapted 
to  common  comprehension  ;  and,  on  the  other, 
in  proportion  as  any  one  is  accustomed  to  think 
clearly,  and  reason  consecutively,  so  will  he  be 
the  more  struck  with  their  uncertain  meaning, 
or  the  absence  of  meaning,  the  inconsistency  of 
thought,  and  the  want,  or  the  inconsequence, 
of  reasoning.  It  has  even  been  made  a  matter; 
of  boasting  by  the  disciples  of  the  school,  that 
these  speculations  are  to  be  understood  only  by 
minds  of  a  peculiar  cast,  prepared  for  their  re- 
ception. 

But  we  have  not,  it  may  be  said,  yet  removed 
the  difficulty,  that  the  evidence  and  character 
of  Christianity,  in  order  to  be  properly  under- 
stood, require  investigations  which  are  beyond 
» 

the  capacity  or  the  opportunities  of  a  great  ma- 
jority of  men.  Let  us  then  consider  to  what 
this  difficulty  amounts. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  founded  merely  on  the 
fact,  that  religious  knowledge  has  the  character 
common  to  all  our  higher  knowledge,  that  it 
requires  labor,  thought,  and  learning  to  attain 
it.     This  is  a  fact ;    and  it  is  a  fact  likewise, 

32* 


378  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

that  its  attainment  is  attended  with  peculiar 
difficulties,  such  as  do  not  commonly  embarrass 
men  in  the  pursuit  of  mere  worldly  sciences ; 
since  all  vices  and  moral  defects,  all  bad  pas- 
sions, sinister  motives,  low  affections,  and  selfish 
aims,  —  every  thing  contrary  to  perfect  sincer- 
ity of  purpose,  —  operate  to  draw  us  away  from 
the  truth.  But  these  facts  are  true  of  the  study 
of  religion  in  general,  not  of  that  of  Christian- 
ity alone ;  and,  therefore,  form  no  special  objec- 
tion to  the  character  of  Christianity. 

All  the  truths  of  philosophy,  all  those  be- 
longing to  the  higher  departments  of  knowl- 
edge, all  those  connected  with  the  intellectual 
and  moral  progress  of  mankind,  all  those  most 
important  to  our  worldly  comfort  and  enjoy- 
ment, so  far  as  their  recognition  has  depended 
on  man  alone,  have  required  strenuous  and 
long-continued  efforts  of  intellect  to  effect  their 
gradual  development,  their  clear  exposition,  and 
their  general  reception.  These  efforts  have 
been  made  by  a  few  individuals,  the  instruct- 
ors of  their  race.  The  processes  of  reasoning 
by  which  these  truths  are  established  are  now 
gone  over  and  fully  comprehended  by  only  a 
comparatively  small  portion  of  men.  But  the 
benefit  of  these  truths,  the  practical  "result  of 
those  investigations,  are  now  a  common  prop- 


IN   CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  379 

erty  and  a  common  blessing.  We  are  wise 
through  the  wisdom  of  others.  Human  knowl- 
edge is  the  aggregate  wealth  of  civilized  man, 
not  the  peculiar  possession  of  individuals ;  and 
all  may  share  its  advantages,  whether  or  not 
they  have  contributed  to  it,  or  even  understand 
the  means  of  its  accumulation.  To  take  one 
example :  —  Throughout  the  enlightened  por- 
tion of  the  world,  the  facts  which  astronomy 
has  made  known  are  generally  received.  These 
facts  are  applied  to  most  important  purposes, 
as  regards  our  worldly  concerns.  By  affording 
such  facilities,  as  could  not  have  been  imagined 
before  they  existed,  to  the  intercourse  between 
nations,  they  have  rendered  incalculable  ser- 
vice, in  promoting  civilization,  knowledge,  and 
the  social  virtues.  They  have  made  the  heav- 
ens teach  us  religion,  converting  them  into  a 
natural  revelation  of  God.  But  astronomy  is  a 
science  which  it  has  been  the  labor  of  more 
than  two  thousand  years  to  bring  to  its  present 
state.  This  science,  its  proofs  and  its  relations, 
are  now  the  study  of  a  life.  If,  then,  because 
what  it  teaches  is  not  obvious,  but  requires 
long  investigation,  or  because  its  proofs  can 
be  fully  understood  but  by  few,  or  because  it 
is  not  the  result  of  the  unfolding  of  any  faculty 
or  tendency  common  to  all  men,  any  one  should 


380  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

conclude  that  the  truths  which  it  makes  known 
are  to  be  rejected,  and  the  benefits  flowing  from 
them  disregarded,  he  would  reason  as  wisely  as 
he  who  reasons  in  a  similar  manner  concerning 
Christianity. 

In  the  one  case,  and  in  the  other,  and 
throughout  the  whole  sphere  of  our  higher 
knowledge,  the  results  of  the  intellectual  ef- 
forts of  a  few  become  the  common  benefit  of 
many.  None  has  made  himself  master  of  all 
the  departments  of  knowledge;  none  has  fol- 
lowed out  any  one  of  them  into  all  its  ramifica- 
tions, and  verified  for  himself  every  step  in  the 
evidence  necessary  to  establish  his  belief  He 
who  fancies  he  may  have  done  so  can  have  lit- 
tle comprehension  of  the  relations  of  any  im- 
portant subject.  However  far  one  may  have 
carried  his  own  investigations,  there  is  much 
that  he  receives  because  it  is  generally  admit- 
ted as  true,  or  because  it  is  stated  by  writers  on 
whom  he  is  satisfied  that  he  may  rely.  We  are 
not  insulated  individuals,  independent  thinkers, 
whose  business  it  is,  each  to  build  up  a  little 
system  of  his  own  out  of  the  poor  materials 
that  he  has  gathered  with  the  labor  of  his  own 
hands.  We  are  sharers  in  the  wisdom  of  our 
race.  The  masses  of  knowledge  which  enlight- 
ened men  are  continually  bringing   into  the 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  381 

treasury  of  human  improvement  are  soon  con- 
verted into  common  currency.  Each  individual 
is  not  obliged  to  dig  the  ore  from  the  mine  for 
himself.  Those  who  think  most  wisely  are 
instructors  of  each  other.  They  receive  much 
upon  each  other's  authority.  The  foundation 
of  their  wisdom  is  the  aggregate  wisdom  of  the 
age  in  which  they  live.  Linked  together,  as 
we  are,  intellectually  as  well  as  morally,  the 
individual  makes  progress  with  those  about 
him.  Whatever  truths  he  may  hold,  he  has 
not  attained  them  by  the  unaided  efforts  of  his 
own  mind ;  he  has  commenced  with  some  share, 
great  or  small,  in  the  common  stock  of  knowl- 
edge. It  cannot,  therefore,  be  an  objection  to 
any  truth  whatever,  and,  consequently,  not  to 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  that  the  full  compre- 
hension of  its  character  and  evidence  is  the 
result  of  studies  which  are  pursued  only  by 
few,  and  that  the  many  want  capacity  or  oppor- 
tunity to  satisfy  themselves  on  the  subject  by 
their  independent,  unassisted  exertions. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  no  direct  answer  has 
yet  been  given  to  the  question,  —  On  what 
ground  is  the  truth  of  Christianity  to  be  re- 
ceived by  those  who  are  unable  to  give  them- 
selves to  a  full  study  of  its  evidences  1  The 
reply  is,  that  it  is  to  be  received  on  the  same 


382  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

ground  as  we  receive  all  other  truths  of  which 
we  have  not  ourselves  mastered  the  evidences  ; 
for  the  same  reason  that  we  do  not  reject  all 
that  vast  amount  of  knowledge  which  is  not 
the  result  of  our  own  deductions.  Our  belief 
in  those  truths  the  evidence  of  which  we  can- 
not fully  examine  for  ourselves  is  founded  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree  on  the  testimony  of 
others,  who  have  examined  their  evidence,  and 
whom  we  regard  as  intelligent  and  trustworthy. 
This  is  a  ground  of  belief  which  is  universal, 
and  which  if  we  relinquish,  far  the  greater 
part  of  human  knowledge  must  be  relinquished 
with  it.  The  likeness  in  the  essential  powers 
of  men's  minds  gives  them  a  common  property 
in  each  other's  acquisitions.  What  wise  and 
honest  men,  who  have  devoted  themselves  to 
the  examination  of  a  subject,  are  satisfied  is 
true,  we  may  conclude,  unless  we  can  discern 
some  special  reason  to  the  contrary,  that  we 
also  should  perceive  to  be  true  after  similar  in- 
vestigation. This  reliance  on  the  knowledge 
of  others  may  be  called  belief  on  trust,  or  belief 
on  authority  ;  but  perhaps  a  more  proper  name 
for  it  would  be  belief  on  testimony,  the  testi- 
mony of  those  who  have  examined  a  subject  to 
their  conviction  of  the  truth  of  certain  facts. 
The  reasonableness  of  such  a  belief  is  constant- 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  383 

ly  implied.  In  their  opinions,  and  practical 
concerns,  men  are  continually  deferring  to  the 
judgment  of  those  whom  they  think  better  in- 
formed than  themselves.  We  commit  our  health 
and  lives  into  the  hands  of  a  physician,  relying 
implicitly  on  his  opinions  concerning  our  dis- 
ease and  its  cure,  while  of  the  correctness  of 
those  opinions  we  may  have  no  means  of  form- 
ing a  judgment,  other  than  our  belief  in  his 
information  and  good  sense.  To  take  an  exam- 
ple from  the  science  to  which  we  have  before 
referred :  —  very  few  individuals,  scarcely  one 
in  a  million  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
have  gone  through  the  whole  body  of  evidence 
by  which  it  is  demonstrated  that  all  the  mo- 
tions of  the  bodies  of  the  solar  system  in  rela- 
tion to  each  other  are  to  be  referred  to  the  one 
law  of  gravity;  yet  he  would  be  thought  un- 
wise, who,  because  he  had  not  studied  this  evi- 
dence, nor  any  part  of  it,  should  therefore 
doubt  the  testimony  of  those  who  have.  In 
the  application  of  this  universal  principle  of 
belief  to  the  evidences  and  character  of  Chris- 
tianity, all  that  is  required  of  an  intelligent 
man  is,  that  he  should  admit  it  as  an  element 
in  his  reasoning ;  that  he  should  rely,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  on  the  trustworthiness  of  others 
who  have  made  the    subject  their  particular 


384  OBJECTION  TO   FAITH 

study ;  that  he  should  allow  the  truth  of  facts 
which  they  affirm,  and  which  he  sees  no  cause 
for  doubting.  Of  the  reasoning  upon  those 
facts  he  may  judge  for  himself;  and  he  will 
also  judge  to  what  extent  he  should  thus  re- 
ceive information  on  trust.  But  it  is  no  objec- 
tion to  Christianity,  that  a  knowledge  of  its 
evidences  and  its  character  must  rest  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  on  what  is  a  universal  condition  of 
human  knowledge,  trust  in  the  capacity  and 
honesty  of  others.  The  admission  of  this  prin- 
ciple does  not  weaken  the  force  of  its  evidences 
in  the  mind  of  any  man  of  correct  judgment. 
In  maintaining,  therefore,  that  the  thorough 
investigation  of  the  evidences  and  character 
of  our  religion  requires  much  knowledge  and 
much  thought,  and  the  combined  and  contin- 
ued labor  of  different  minds,  we  maintain  noth- 
ing that  gives  to  Christianity  a  different  char- 
acter from  what  belongs  to  all  the  higher  and 
more  important  branches  of  knowledge,  and 
nothing  inconsistent  with  its  being  in  its  na- 
ture a  universal  religion. 

We  have  seen  the  reasonableness  of  believ- 
ing, to  a  certain  extent,  on  trust ;  or,  if  I  may 
so  use  the  term,  on  testimony.  In  considering 
the  subject,  the  reasonableness  of  this  principle 
of  belief  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  a  very 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  385 

important  fact  concerning  it,  —  the  fact  that 
it  is  the  actual  foundation  of  belief  in  a  great 
majority  of  mankind,  on  almost  all  subjects 
lying  beyond  the  sphere  of  personal  experience. 
There  are  those,  who,  in  treating  of  man,  seem 
to  consider  themselves  as  types  of  the  human 
race  in  its  actual  condition ;  and,  over-estimat- 
ing perhaps  their  own  powers  of  investigation, 
indulge  in  declamation  concerning  independence 
of  thought,  in  which  what  is  true  is  applicable 
only  to  a  comparatively  small  number.  Our 
first  impressions,  the  belief  of  childhood,  are 
the  result  of  our  trust  in  the  testimony  of  oth- 
ers ;  and  a  similar  trust,  whether  it  be  recog- 
nized by  them  or  not,  continues  to  be  with  a 
majority  of  men  a  main  source  of  their  opin- 
ions. Without  any  reasoning  on  the  subject, 
we  expect  the  operation  of  this  principle  of 
belief  We  suppose,  as  a  general  fact,  that  one 
educated  as  a  Roman  Catholic  will  identify 
that  form  of  faith  with  Christianity,  however 
wide  the  difference  may  appear  to  us.  We 
should  regard  it  as  a  marvel,  and  as  indicating 
extraordinary  intellectual  energy  in  the  indi- 
vidual, should  one  brought  up  as  a  Mahome- 
tan become  a  sincere  and  intelligent  Christian. 
The  opinions  of  the  majority  of  men  are  de- 
termined by  the  intellectual  influences  acting 

33 


386  OBJECTION  TO  FAITH 

upon  them,  which  have  their  origin  in  a  few 
minds. 

The  principle,  then,  of  believing  on  testimo- 
ny, however  necessary  and  universal,  may  lead, 
and  has  led,  to  great  errors ;  but  this  character- 
istic it  has  in  common  with  every  other  princi- 
ple of  belief,  except  personal  experience  or 
mathematical  demonstration.  It  is  further  to 
be  observed,  that  all  wrong  opinions,  though 
they  may  be  propagated  by  it,  must  have  had 
their  origin  in  some  other  source.  To  what- 
ever errors  this  form  of  belief  may  lead,  it  is 
an  inevitable  concomitant  of  our  nature.  The 
generality  of  men  can  be  no  wiser  than  their 
instructors. 

This  view  of  human  belief,  as  resting  in  so 
great  a  degree  upon  what  may  be  called  testi- 
mony, serves  to  show  strongly  the  responsibil- 
ity that  lies  on  all  those  who  undertake  to  in- 
fluence the  opinions  of  their  fellow-men,  on  any 
subject  by  their  belief  concerning  which  their 
moral  principles  or  their  happiness  may  be  af- 
fected. Whoever  may  do  so  should  have  nat- 
ural capacity  for  the  office ;  he  should  have  the 
requisite  knowledge,  of  which  extensive  learn- 
ing commonly  makes  a  part ;  and  he  should  be 
influenced  by  no  motives  inconsistent  with  a 
love  of  truth  and  goodness,  by  no  craving  for 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  387 

notoriety,  no  restless  desire  to  be  the  talk  of 
the  day,  no  party  spirit,  and  no  selfish  pur- 
pose of  maintaining  doctrines,  the  profession  of 
which  he  cannot  renounce  without  the  loss  of 
some  worldly  advantage.  Before  he  inculcates 
any  peculiar  opinions,  he  should  have  thor- 
oughly studied  them,  have  clearly  defined  them 
to  his  own  mind,  have  traced  out  their  rela- 
tions, arid  have  become  persuaded  that  future 
investigation  will  not  lead  him  to  change  them. 
And  further,  he  should  believe  himself  to  see 
clearly  that  their  promulgation  will  tend  to 
good;  since,  if  there  be  a  God  who  rules  all 
things  in  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  no  gen- 
eral law  or  fact  in  the  universe  can  ultimately 
tend  to  evil,  and  consequently  no  general  truth, 
or  affirmation  of  such  law  or  fact,  can  be  ulti- 
mately mischievous.  In  proportion,  therefore, 
as  the  beneficial  effect  of  any  doctrine  is  doubt- 
ful, so  far  is  its  truth  doubtful,  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  there  is  a  God.  And  if  there  be  not 
a  God,  on  which  supposition  truth  might  be 
mischievous,  the  moral  offence  of  publishing  a 
mischievous  truth  would  still  remain. 

Judging  from  the  practice  of  the  day,  the 
responsibility  of  which  I  speak  is  not  greatly 
regarded ;  and  we  may  conclude  from  the  lan- 
guage which  is  freely  used,  that  it  is  not  gener* 


388  OBJECTION  TO  FxilTH 

ally  understood.  Men  throw  out  their  opinions 
rashly,  reserving  to  themselves  the  liberty  of 
correcting  them,  if  they  are  wrong.  If  you 
would  know  for  what  doctrines  they  hold 
themselves  responsible,  you  must  look  to  their 
last  publication.  It  deserves  praise,  we  are 
told,  for  one  to  confess  himself  to  have  been  in 
error.  It  does,  without  doubt;  as  it  also  de- 
serves praise  for  one  to  repent  of  a  crime  and 
to  make  reparation ;  but  a  wise  and  good  man, 
as  he  will  avoid  committing  crimes,  so,  accord- 
ing to  his  ability,  he  will  avoid  promulgating 
errors  on  important,  or  unimportant,  subjects. 
Another  loose  notion  is,  that  there  should  be 
no  discouragement,  by  the  expression  of  moral 
disapprobation,  to  the  promulgation  of  any  doc- 
trine, whatever  may  be  its  character,  or  what- 
ever may  be  the  moral  or  intellectual  qualifica- 
tions of  the  teacher;  for  that  this  would  be 
putting  a  check  upon  freedom  of  discussion. 
The  doctrine  may  be  confuted,  it  is  said,  if  it  is 
erroneous.  But  it  should  be  recollected,  that 
many  errors  are  in  alliance  with  men's  pas- 
sions, vices,  and  follies,  and  that,  when  plausi- 
bly affirmed,  they  may  be  readily  admitted  by 
those  who  will  not  listen  to,  or  perhaps  could 
not  comprehend,  a  series  of  explanations  and 
arguments.     It  should  likewise  be  recollected, 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  389 

that  a  writer  careless  of  facts,  bold  in  his  asser- 
tions, and  confused  and  illogical  in  his  concep- 
tions, may  commit  more  errors  in  a  page,  than 
an  able  man  can  confute  in  twenty ;  that  these 
errors  may  be  so  gross,  that  one  conversant  with 
the  subject  may  regard  the  task  of  exposing 
them  as  unworthy  of  him ;  and  that  it  is  hard 
to  condemn  such  as  are  capable  of  informing 
others,  to  the  poor  employment  of  rooting  out 
errors,  the  growth  of  which  is  encouraged  by 
those  who  assign  them  the  task.  But  it  is  only 
necessary  to  attend  to  the  general  principle, 
that,  dependent  as  we  all  are  upon  the  in- 
formation and  the  opinions  of  others,  no  one 
has  a  right  to  assume  the  office  of  our  in- 
structor, who  has  not  labored  to  qualify  him- 
self morally  and  intellectually  for  its  proper 
performance. 

But  to  recur  to  our  general  subject: — I  have 
endeavored  to  state  the  objection,  or  the  diffi- 
culty, which  we  have  been  considering,  in  the 
plainest  manner,  and,  admitting  it  in  its  whole 
extent,  have  limited  myself  to  a  direct  reply. 
It  is  said,  that  a  great  majority  of  men  are  not 
capable  of  investigating  for  themselves  the  evi- 
dences and  character  of  Christianity,  and  there- 
fore can  have  no  reasonable  foundation  for 
their  belief  in  Christianity.     The  direct  answer. 

34 


390  OBJECTION   TO  FAITH 

to  which  alone  we  have  attended,  is,  that  trust 
in  the  information,  judgment,  and  integrity  of 
others,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  as  it  is  a  uni- 
versal and  necessary,  is  also  a  rational  principle 
of  belief.  If  this  be  true,  any  further  answer 
is  not  required ;  but  very  much  more  might  be 
said  to  show  the  false  view  of  the  subject  im- 
plied in  that  objection ;  and  to  make  it  evident 
that  every  one,  accustomed  to  thought  and  rea- 
soning, may,  without  any  theological  learning, 
strictly  so  called,  be  able  to  satisfy  himself  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  by  the  exercise  of  his 
mind  upon  facts  that  cannot  reasonably  be 
doubted.  But  this  subject  involves  the  whole 
evidence  of  our  religion  ;  and  it  has  been  my 
purpose  merely  to  show  that  this  evidence  is 
not  to  be  rejected,  because  it  is  analogous  in  its 
character  to  that  by  which  every  other  impor- 
tant truth  is  established  among  men. 

The  objection  we  have  been  considering  goes 
directly  against  the  possibility  of  any  miracu- 
lous revelation  from  God,  as  a  foundation  of 
our  religious  belief  It  would  condemn  us,  as 
a  matter  of  necessity,  to  the  desolation  of  our 
ignorance.  It  would  darken  its  shades ;  for,  if 
Christianity  be  a  delusion,  if  that  religion 
which  the  most  civilized  portion  of  the  world 
has  professed,  and  the   wisest  men  have  be- 


IN  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED.  391 

lieved,  be  founded  in  error;  if  that  religion 
which  has  seemed  to  bring  us  near  to  God,  and 
to  confirm  all  our  best  hopes,  and  which  has 
given  vigor  to  every  right  motive,  be  false, — 
then  a  deeper  and  more  chilling  shade  falls 
upon  the  world,  and  all  human  reasoning  be- 
comes more  uncertain.  By  the  rejection  of 
Christianity,  man  is  not  left  in  the  state  in 
which  he  was  before  its  promulgation.  A  new 
and  gloomy  marvel  appears  in  the  history  of 
our  race. 

But,  in  truth,  the  mere  fact  that  God  has 
made  a  miraculous  communication  to  men  for 
their  good,  considered  independently  of  any 
truths  which  he  may  have  made  known,  is  one 
of  inexpressible  interest.  It  introduces  him 
within  the  sphere  of  human  experience,  and 
makes  his  existence  a  reality  to  our  minds.  It 
gives  a  definiteness  to  our  ideas  of  him,  that 
nothing  else  could  afford.  It  presents  him  dis- 
tinctly to  our  conceptions  and  feelings  in  his 
paternal  character.  It  establishes  a  relation 
between  God  and  man  that  could  not  otherwise 
exist,  and  immeasurably  elevates  our  race  in  the 
scale  of  being.  Christianity,  simply  as  a  reve- 
lation from  God,  rises  on  the  history  of  man, 
like  the  sun  on  the  natural  world.  We  may 
doubt,  we  may  disbelieve  it ;  but  it  is  vain  to 


392    OBJECTION  TO  CHRISTIANITY  CONSIDERED. 

contend  that  there  cannot  be  plenary  evidence 
of  its  truth,  or  that,  this  plenary  evidence  ex- 
isting, it  cannot  be  made  satisfactory  to  the 
ofeneralitv  of  men. 


THE    END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RSTUSN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORJROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  ot 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


^..■■i'-C** 


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